LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES. 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 



OF 



WILLIAM E. RUSSELL. 



SELECTED AND EDITED BY 



CHARLES THEODORE RUSSELL, JR. 



Wiitl) an Entroliuctton 

BY 

THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 



BOSTON: 
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 

1894. 




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Copyright, 1S93, 
By Little, Brown, axd Co. 



SSntbrrst'lg ^^rrss: 
JonN Wilson and Son, Cambbidge, U.S.A. 



TO 



MY FATHER, 

TO WHOM I HAVE EVER LOOKED FOR SYMPATHY, ADVICE, 

AND AID IN MEETING OFFICIAL DUTIES, 

AND NEVER LOOKED IN VAIN, 

I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME. 



TN editing these Speeches and Addresses of the Hon. 
-^ William E. Russell, the Editor has not attempted 
to make a complete collection of them, but has en- 
deavored to select such as miii'ht have a more than 
temporary interest as well from their intrinsic merit 
as from the interest in the general subject. 

Many speeches of value in themselves have been 
omitted, owing to their temporary or local character. 
In pursuance of this plan, it has been thought best to 
omit all his municipal addresses and messages. 

In making the selection from over two hundred and 
fifty political speeches, the Editor has endeavored to 
form a series treating of the tariff in as many different 
phases as possible, and of its effect upon the various 
industries of Massachusetts and New England. He 
has also included some speeches which illustrate the 
marked personal characteristics and style of Governor 
Russell's campaign arguments. 

Many of the addresses, and substantially all the 
political speeches as published, have been collected 
from reports in the newspapers made at the time of 
delivery, and may to some degree lack the finish 
which would come from more elaborate preparation 
and revision. 

CHARLES THEODORE RUSSELL, Jr. 
Cambridge, Dec. 9, 1893. 



CONTENTS. 



^ptn\)t& on General (©cca;sionsf* 



PAes 



Address delivered at Union Hall, at the Dedication of the Young 
Men's Christian Association, Dec. 10, 1885 1 

Address at the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Estab- 
lishment of the First Church of Cambridge, Feb. 12, 1886 . . . 4 

Speech on the Question of Constitutional Prohibition, Boston, April, 
1889 10 

Address at Atlanta, Georgia, Feb. 13, 1890. The New North and the 
New South 16 

Address to the Harvard Alumni, at Cambridge, on Commencement 
Day, June 24, 1891 29 

Address at a Public Reception tendered Ex-President Cleveland at 
Sandwich, July 25, 1891 , 35 

Address at the Dedication of the Monument commemorating the 
Battle of Bennington, at Bennington, Aug. 19, 1891 39 

Address at the Dinner given by the French' Societies of Massachusetts 
to Hon. Wilfred Laurier, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, 
Nov. 17, 1891 \ 44 

Address at the Opening of the New Building of the Boston Chamber 
of Commerce, Jan. 21, 1892 48 

Address to the Harvard Alumni, at Cambridge, on Commencement 
Da)^, June 30, 1892 52 

Address at the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settle- 
ment of Woburn, Mass., at Woburn, Sept. 27, 1892 57 

Speech at the Opening of the Exhibition of the Charitable Mechanics 
Association, Oct. 6, 1892 61 

Speech at the Dinner of the Irish Charitable Society in Boston, March 
19, 1893 64 



viii CONTENTS. 

FAG£ 

Introductory Remarks as Presiding Officer at the Dinner given to 
Hon. P. A. Collins, in Boston, April 4, 1893, upon his Departure 
as Consul-General to London 68 

Speech at the Dinner of the British Charitable Society, in Boston, 
May 24, 1893 71 

Introductory Remarks as Presiding Officer at the Dinner given by the 
Massachusetts Delegation to the Officials of the World's Fair, in 
Chicago, June 15, 1893 74 

Address at the Banquet given by the Massachusetts Society of Chicago 
to the Massachusetts Delegation to the ^Yo^ld's Fair, at Chicago, 
June 17, 1893 76 

Speech at the Annual Dinner of the Harvard Alumni, at Cambridge, 
Commencement Day, June 28, 1893 83 

Address at Holy Cross College, Worcester, on Commencement Day, 
June 29, 1893 89 

Speech at the One Hundredth Anniversary of Williams College, 
Oct. 10, 1893 92 

Speech at the Dedication of Trenton Battle Monument, Trenton, 
Oct. 19, 1893 97 



&>pffct)rs on £piUtar^ (Occasions;. 

Address to the Cambridge Posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
Memorial Day, May 30, 1 885 101 

Address as Presiding Officer at the ^lemorial Service to General 
Grant in Union Hall, Cambridge, Aug. 8, 1885 103 

Address at the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Departure of the First 
Company of Volunteers to the War, Cambridge, April 17, 1886 . 104 

Speech at the Dinner of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- 
pany, Faneuil Hall, June 1, 1891 107 

Speech at the Dinner of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- 
pany, Faneuil Hall, June 6, 1892 Ill 

Speech at the Annual Encampment of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, Faneuil HaU, Feb. 9, 1893 116 



CONTENTS. ix 



fe>tatc ^pm\)t$* 



PAGE 



Inaugural Address to the Legislature of Massachusetts, Jau. 8, 1891 . 119 

Inaugural Address to the Legislature of Massachusetts, Jan. 7, 1892 . 147 
Message vetoing an Act to authorize the Connecticut River Eailroad 

Company to increase its Capital Stock, May 9, 1892 177 

Message vetoing an Act to promote Temperance by the Suppression 

of the Liquor Saloon, June 16, 1892 184 

Inaugural Addre.ss to the Legislature of Massachusetts, Jan. 5, 1893 . 189 
Message vetoing an Act relative to Persons employed in tlie Fire 

Department of Boston, March 27, 1893 214 

Message vetoing the Act to incorporate tlie Town of East Long- 
meadow, May 5, 1893 217 



polictcal ^prfc!)f0. 

Speech at Middlesex County Democratic Club, Boston, March 5, 1885 221 
Speech at Union Meeting of Democrats and Independents, at Music 
Hall, Boston, Oct. 25, 1886. The Democratic Party the Party of 

Progress 224 

Speech at Baltimore, Md., July 4, 1888, as Presiding Officer of the 

Convention of the Democratic Clubs of the United States . . . 232 
Speech at Springfield, Mass., July 26, 1888. The Tariff . . . . 238 

Speech at Tremont Temple, Boston, Oct. 27, 1888. The Tariff . . 258 
Speech at the Young Men's Democratic Club Dinner, Boston, Dec. 

17, 1888, upon the Lessons of Defeat 266 

Speech at the Democratic State Convention, Worcester, Oct. 2, 1889. 

The Record of the Republican Party 272 

Speech at the Bay State Club Dinner, Boston, Oct. 12, 1889. Com- 
parison of the Democratic and Republican Platforms 278 

Speech at the Young Men's Democratic Club Dinner, Boston, Dec. 

14, 1889. The Difference between the Parties 290 

Speech at Norwood, Oct. 11, 1890, upon the Tariff and the Lobby . 297 

Speech at Lowell, Oct. 19, 1890. The Tariff 312 

Speech at Fall River. Labor Legislation. — The Tariff in its Rela- 
tion to Wages and to the Cotton Industry 320 



X CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Speecli at Gardner, Mass., Oct. 28, 1890. Tlie Tariff in its Relation to 
the Farming Industry 338 

Speech at the Tariff Reform League Dinner, New York, Dec. 23, 1890 348 

Speech at the Democratic State Convention, Worcester, Sept. 29, 
1891. State Issues 353 

Speecli at Music Hall, Boston, Oct. 5, 1891 . The Tariff and its Effect 
upon Massachusetts 364 

Speech at Lynn, Oct. 29, 1891. State Issues: The Tariff in its Rela- 
tion to the Leather Industry 380 

Speech at Dedham, Oct. 9, 1892. State Issues: The Meaning of 
Tariff for Revenue. — The Effect of Tariff upon Prices . . . .393 

Speech at Maiden, Oct. 10, 1892. The Force Bill 409 

Speech at Newburyport, Oct. 14, 1892. The Tariff, especially in its 
Relation to Trusts 418 

Speech at Lawrence, Oct. 26, 1892. State Issues: The Tariff in its 
Relation to the Woollen Industry 430 

Speech at Fitchburg, Oct. 31, 1892. The Tariff in its Relation to the 
Iron Industry 444 

Speech at Haverhill, Oct. 24, 1893. The Political Causes of the Busi- 
ness Depression of 1893 454 



INTRODUCTION. 



IT was noticeable during our Civil War that there 
were two kinds of officers who called forth especial 
enthusiasm among their soldiers. One type was "the 
old man," commonly a person in middle life, who had a 
sort of paternal relation to those under liim, and had 
the influence that belongs to civic reputation and ma- 
ture seniority, even before testing his ability in the new 
field. The other was the kind of officer described by 
the men as " our young captain," — perhaps, even, " our 
little captain," — who was possibly more youthful and 
delicate in appearance than any of those whom he com- 
manded, and who, for that very reason, if he had the 
stuff in him, was to them a source of pride in inverse 
ratio to his years. The mere fact of his not needing the 
vantage ground of age made him stronger than if he 
had it ; his veteran soldiers exulted in his very youth, 
and in the surprise which it inspired in strangers. It 
was like the pride taken by old men-o'-war's men in 
some favorite midshipman ; or like the enthusiasm early 
called out among Napoleon's soldiers for " the Little 
Corporal" (ie Petit Cajjoral'). Something of this 
feeling survives in our politics ; and though the recent 
campaigns of the Democratic party have brought many 
young men to the front, no one has so distinctly exem- 
plified this advantage as William Eustis Russell. 



xii INTRODUCTION. 

He was born in Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 6, 1857, 
being the ninth child and fourth and youngest son of 
Charles Theodore and Sarah Elizabeth (Ballister) Rus- 
sell. Upon the father's side lie is of the ninth gene- 
ration from William Russell, a Puritan colonist who 
settled in Cambridge in 1645. On the mother's side he 
is of French Huguenot extraction. He was educated in 
the Cambridge public schools, and graduated at Harvard 
University in 1877. His rank in his class was not high, 
but fair, and he was elected class secretary, which im- 
plied a good standing among his classmates. Two years 
later he took his degree of Bachelor of Laws at the 
Boston University Law School, where his father was a 
professor. There he gained the first Summa cum laude 
conferred by the school, winning the Lawrence Prize 
for the best legal essay, and delivering the class ora- 
tion. In 1880 he was admitted to the bar, becoming 
a member of his father's firm, with which he has always 
remained connected. In that same year he began 
political speaking in support of General Hancock, the 
Democratic nominee for the Presidency, and of his 
own father, who had been nominated, though unsuc- 
cessfully, for Congress. In 1881 he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the Cambridge Common Council ; in the two 
following years served as an alderman; and' was mayor 
for the four years from 1885 to 1888, he being during 
two of these years the only candidate in the field. In 
this last year he was first nominated for governor, and 
made nearly fifty speeches for tariff reform in different 
parts of the State. For two successive years he was 
defeated ; but he was finally elected in 1890, and again 
in 1891 and 1892, although Massachusetts in each year 
proved itself still a Republican State, In the last-named 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

year, for instance (1892), the plurality for the high- 
est Republican presidential elector was 26,001, while 
Governor Russell's plurality was 2,534. It is very rare 
in our politics to see such a discrepancy as this. 

But the greater the personal triumph, the greater the 
inconvenience subsequently endured. During his whole 
three years of office he had to hold his own against a 
Legislature and a State government politically opposed 
to him. It is unnecessary to point out that this was a 
great test of courage and judgment, and that he experi- 
enced the benefit of the long official training which he 
had received. The tact, the energy, the patience which 
had been developed by four years in the mayor's chair 
were all needed for his three years of gubernatorial life, 
and he had cultivated those qualities in a high degree. 
To retire voluntarily from such a position after three 
years of service without having made a single serious 
mistake, and with the respect of his very opponents, was 
to have endured an ordeal such as is not common in 
public life. 

This showed that his public career, though it came to 
him early, did not come prematurely. When he became, 
like his father and grandfather before him, a State offi- 
cial, he was far older in experience and in years than 
Gladstone when he entered Parliament at twenty-two, or 
Lord John Russell when he entered it at one-and-twenty. 
The real truth is that Governor Russell looked much 
younger than he was ; and that, still retaining that as- 
pect, he disarms criticism in advance. To the stranger 
who sees him for the first time it might appear that 
a mistake has been made, and that, through some 
accident, a law student or an undergraduate has been 
deputed to fill the place of his Excellency. Such an 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

impression gives to a public speaker a vantage ground 
of cordial and kindly expectancy; and more than this 
no good speaker needs. Having availed himself of it 
almost unconsciously, since it is now probably an old 
story, the orator can afford to cast it utterly aside and 
proceed to business. In Governor Russell's case there 
has never been any special affectation of youth, in dress, 
bearing, or language ; he does not trade upon it, but 
wears this youthful appearance for the simple reason 
that he cannot help it. His habits of physical activity 
maintain it whether he will or no, and his great power 
of work preserves the equilibrium on the intellectual 
side. It was said of an early Cambridge pastor, who 
founded the church in which Governor Russell was 
brought up, the Rev. Thomas Shepard, who died before 
the meridian of life, that he was " a truly aged young 
man ; " and this would be a good formula to describe the 
impression made by Governor Russell. 

It is always noticed by the hearer that after Governor 
Russell has once entered on his speech, he enrolls him- 
self instantly among what may be called the business- 
like orators as distinct from the rhetorical orators. 
Except President Eliot, I know no public speaker in 
New Eugland who devotes himself so promptly to the 
matter in hand, and is so utterly devoid of claptrap. I 
have often spoken with him on the same platform, and 
have never known an exception to this general charac- 
terization of his manner and method. There is never 
any digression, rarely any illustration ; he simply speaks 
right on, and holds his audience as he grasps the sub- 
ject. Theodore Parker used to say that a New England 
audience pre-eminently required two things, — clearness 
of arrangement, and a great abundance of facts. It is 



INTRODUCTION. XV 

because audiences have both of these things from Gover- 
nor Russell that he never fails to hold them. He may be 
right or wrong, but he shoots straight to the mark. He 
strikes into his theme from the moment of his rising ; 
he holds to it until he sits down. With all the power of 
a clear head, an earnest conviction, and a powerful 
voice, he keeps his hearers to the point. The speech is 
generally localized, — adapted, that is, to the pursuits and 
interests of the community where he is. He does not 
treat the tariff, for instance, as an abstraction, but has 
mastered its application to the precise town or village 
where he is speaking. His talk therefore, •' comes down 
into every pew," as used to be said of good preaching. 
What is usually regarded as the flavoring of oratory he 
uses in the most sparing way ; rarely illustrates, seldom 
makes a joke or a repartee ; when he does, it is not a 
trite one but a good one, yet it is rarely expected. 
Whether this is intentional or a matter of temperament, 
it is hard to say ; but experienced political managers 
often tell us that votes are rarely won by those speakers 
who tell many stories or make people laugh much. 

And as humor does not play a large part in Gover- 
nor Russell's speeches, so neither docs sentiment. 
There are few^ appeals to mere feeling, apart from con- 
science and suggested duty. The chief exception is to 
be found, where it should be found, in the occasional 
expression of his emotion towards his native State. No 
one ever heard him utter the words " the dear old Com- 
monwealth " without discovering that he has what the 
French call " tears in his voice ; " and no one can know 
him well without recognizing that those thrilling tones 
represent in this case a very profound feeling. It can- 
not be said of him as Whittier says of John Randolph, 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

that his patriotism languishes outside of his own State ; 
but it is certain that there never was a Virginian or a 
South Carolinian in whom this wholesome local pride — 
the foundation of ail true nationality — was stronger. 
Perhaps something of the force of this feeling may be 
due to his education in the public schools. It is very 
certain that this training has given to his democratic 
feeling an absolute genuineness which is a vast help to 
a political speaker. He never yields to the temptation to 
speak down to his audience, because he never feels such 
a temptation. When wc consider how many of our great- 
est popular orators — Wendell Phillips conspicuously — 
have been aristocrats by temperament, and democratic 
by moral conviction only, we can see the advantage 
held by a man who can neither patronize nor be patro- 
nized, but is simply in his natural attitude. 

The speeches which follow in this book arc to be inter- 
preted in this spirit. He has acted wisely — and, at any 
rate, frankly — in giving to the public so many of them, 
showing himself at his average, as it were, without 
apology and without flinching, and taking the risk that 
all his themes may not prove alike interesting. If ever a 
public man gave himself with utter openness in his book 
of speeches, that is the case here. Should Mr. Russell 
ever be called to re-enter public life, his whole platform, 
up to this time, has been presented without concealment 
in these pages. Should he ever re-enter it, he has here 
put on record, not only what he did, but what he would 
have done, had there been time and opportunity for all 
his cherished purposes to be accomplished. 

THOMAS WENTWOKTH HIGGINSON. 
Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 3, 1893. 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES. 



SPEECHES ON GENERAL OCCASIONS. 



ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT UNION HALL, AT THE DEDICATION OF 
THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, DEC, 

10, 1885. 

I AM glad to-night to express the city's gratitude to 
her generous citizens for this noble institution. 
It comes to meet a want long felt. I know how richly 
in the past we have been blessed, hoAv much we have 
had that has added to the strength, honor, and fame of 
our city, to the comfort and happiness of her citizens. 
Education and literature have ever thrived amonar 
us. Admirable public schools have taken care that 
"■ learning should not be buried in the graves of our 
forefathers," as the old colonial statute seemed to fear. 
An honored university has grown up with us and 
blessed us, forever and honorably associating the names 
of Harvard and Cambridfre. Nor have we lacked in 
industries, or in the life and vigor which come with 
l)usiness men and business enterprises. Here, as in 
the little village of which our poet sang, and as merrily, 
"Labor with its hundred hands has knocked at the 
golden gates of the morning." Patriotism, too, from 



2 YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 

early days has distinguished Cambridge. It wrought 
out in our midst national independence and unity; 
then gave sons of Cambridge as the jfirst volunteers to 
defend with their lives the work achieved by the 
struggles and sacrifices of the fathers. Last, but not 
least, the prayers and faith, in the spirit of which pious 
Puritan ancestors founded our little town, have not 
been forgotten or neglected. With all these blessings 
gradually, too gradually, have come the " charities that 
soothe and heal and bless." 

But none nor all of these alone make the real 
strength of Cambridge. Schools and education give 
her a clear, active brain ; labor and industries a strong 
and vigorous backbone; patriotism warms her heart, 
ennobles and uplifts her ; charities keep ever fresh her 
sympathies and humanity, — yet the real strength of 
Cambridge is not in these, but in the character of her 
citizens. This character your Association, with its 
faith and hope, its Christian sympathy and " pure re- 
ligion breathing household laws," tends to mould and 
strengthen. So moulded and strengthened, it is the 
corner-stone of civil society, and the cure of all the 
evils which beset it. "We know," says Burke, "and, 
what is better, we feel inwardly, that religion is the 
basis of civil society and the source of all good and of 
all comfort." "The true reformer," says an old writer, 
"is he who creates new institutions and gives them life 
and energy, and trusts to them for throwing off such evil 
humor as may be lying in the body politic. The true 
reformer is the seminal reformer, not the radical ; and 
this is the way the sower who went forth to sow his 
seed did really reform the world, without making any 
open assault to uproot what was already existing." 
These words of wisdom show the necessity, the object 
and field of your labor. 



YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCL\.TION. 3 

So Cambridge gladly welcomes to the warmest place 
at her fireside this religious and charitable institution ; 
religious in professing Christian principles, charitable 
in seeking useful and unselfish ends, and making the 
faith manifest in good works. She welcomes it as the 
blessed guest who brings to her household sunshine and 
happiness, and she extends to it the cordial hospitality 
it has ever ready for all who enter its doors. May 
God bless and prosper it ! and may its purpose be the 
thought expressed by the poet, — 

" Whoever thou art, whose need is great, 
In the name of Cluist, the compassionate 
And merciful One, for thee I wait." 



ADDRESS 

AT THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRST CHURCH OF 
CAMBRIDGE, FEB. 12, 1886. 



I 



KNOW that the good city of Cambridge, that for 
two hundred and fifty years has walked hand in 
hand with this old church through trials and suffering, 
wars and pestilence, yet always forivard, is glad to be 
present to-day at this anniversary, bearing love to her 
younger sister, and the respect, reverence, and grati- 
tude of a people deeply indebted for her long life of 
usefulness. 

In 1636 our little town, poor, distressed, its people 
"straitened for want of land," with food so scarce that 
"many eate their bread by waight, and had little hope 
of the earth's fruitfullnesse," deserted by the governor, 
failing in the purpose of its founders, but filled with 
" quickening grace and lively affections to this temple 
worke," rejoiced in the founding of this church, that 
brought to it prosperity and happiness, and was to be 
its strength and very life. 

" God's glory and the church's good " bound Win- 
throp, Dudley, and their associates, " in the word of a 
Christian," to embark for the Plantation of New Eng- 
land. "God's glory and the church's good," sought 
by Shepard and his little band in the planting of this 
church, became the strong foundation upon which our 
town was builded. Others had sought to make here a 



FIRST CHURCH OF CAMBRIDGE. 5 

fortified town, a mart of commerce, the seat of govern- 
ment ; but they failed. Perhaps, as Mather says of the 
early settlements north of Plymouth, "these attempts 
being aimed no higher than the advancement of some 
worldly interests, a constant series of disasters con- 
founded them until there was a plantation erected upon 
the nobler designs of Christianity." 

Certainly it is no injustice to our first founders to 
say that not till this church was gathered was New- 
towne permanently established. 

Others to-day will tell better than any words of mine 
the story of the birth and life of the First Church of 
Cambridge. In the telling they cannot fail to give 
much of the history of our city. The late venerable 
pastor of this church ^ has pictured to us, with all the 
rich beauty of his poetic mind, that Cambridge church 
gathering of 1636; another pastor ^ has faithfully and 
ably written its life to the time when he came to watch 
over and guide it. Surely, it is not for me to glean in 
fields where all is harvested; rather let me express 
the deep debt the city owes to the church, and offer her 
homage and thanks to the old Puritan spirit that has 
always been the life of both the church and the city. 

For years the church and town were one, but the 
church was that one. Only its members were freemen, 
and none other had any voice in town affairs. In town- 
meeting the affairs of the church were settled ; there 
repairs were ordered on the meeting-house, grants of 
land made to the church, and votes often passed that 
show how carefully and naturally, while the church was 
the town, the town looked after the interests of the 
church. The old chronicles constantly speak of " the 
people of this church and towne. " Ever the church 

1 Rev. William Newell, D.D. 

2 Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D.D. 



6 FIRST CHURCH OF CAMBRIDGE. 

before the town, ever the "spiritual blessings " before 
the " outward things. " So were they true to the pur- 
pose of their coming, and so building stronger than 
they knew. As the years passed on, and the church 
and town waxed strong, their affairs became more sepa- 
rate and distinct. Yet the church was always ruling 
and leading the town, and the town loyally following 
in her footsteps. Age and separation did not lessen 
the influence of the church. I know full well, sir, that 
a father's threescore years and ten must separate him 
a little from the life of his son; yet I venture to say 
that reverence for the gray hairs and ripe years, the 
recollection of tender care in childhood's days, filial 
love and gratitude, make the threescore years and 
ten a more potent influence over the younger life than 
when the father's will was the child's action, and he 
directed every footstep.^ So was it, so may it ever be, 
with this church and town, the child whom she nur- 
tured and guided, and always followed with love 
and blessing. 

Let me say a word of the great prosperity that came 
to the town upon the establishing of this church under 
"the holy, heavenly, sweet-affecting, and soul-ravishing 
Mr. Shepard." First came the college, with a grant 
from the General Court six times as great as had been 
given for protection against the Indians, planted here 
because of " the enlightening and powerful ministry of 
Mr. Shepard. " Then to the town, now a seat of learn- 
ing, was given her present classic name. Soon sprang 
up, under Master Corlct, the first grammar-school in 
New England; here Stephen Daye established the first 
printing-press ; here Avas printed the first Bible printed 
in America; and here, under John Eliot, was begun 

1 The reference is to Mr. Russell's father, who presided over the 
meeting. 



FIRST CHURCH OF CAMBRIDGE. 7 

"the first Protestant Mission to the heathen in modern 
times." The limits of the town were extended till they 
reached from the Charles to the Merrimac River, — a 
distance of over thirty miles ; or a mile for every twenty 
cattle and every five ratable persons in 1647. The 
" great bridge " was built to Brighton, and other signs 
showed the new life the church had brought. Many of 
these are perhaps the " outward things " of the toAvn's 
prosperity. Better for the town were the faith and 
Puritan spirit that Shepard and his company planted 
in her people. 

Restrained by tyranny of Church, oppressed by 
authority of State, the Puritans abandoned ease and 
honors at home to lead serious lives in a wilderness 
where they might found a " Church without a bishop " 
and a "State without a king." "I'll be upon your 
back," said Bishop Laud to Shepard, "and everlastingly 
disenable you." It was bishops on the backs of Puri- 
tans that gave us this commonwealth and nation. 
"Everlastingly disenable " Shepard! No! but everlast- 
ingly enable him to perpetuate his name and virtues in 
the hearts of a God-fearing, liberty-loving people. The 
Pui'itans hated the union of Church and State ; but here 
they founded a more perfect union, — a Church not de- 
pendent on the State or sustained by its authority, but a 
Church that was its very life. We care not so much to- 
day for the distinctive doctrines of their faith as that 
they had faith ; not so much for the scruples of their 
conscience as that for conscience' sake they dared to 
suffer; not so much for their suffering as that in spite 
of it they never yielded. They came here, brave, de- 
termined, serious men, taught in oppression's school to 
love liberty, firm in the faith they would have died to 
uphold. That was the stuff from which to make com- 
monwealths that were to last. In prayer and faith they 



8 FIRST CHURCH OF CAMBRIDGE. 

founded our little town; by prayer and faith through 
this church they kept alive the Puritan spirit. 

We smile at the austerity of the old Puritans, their 
long faces and mournful manners ; but we forget that 
their work was no holiday pastime. They were not 
seeking how easiest to live, but how best to live for 
"God's glory and the church's good." They were 
church-buildinij, nation-buildino;, establishinsi: institu- 
tions to last as long as men fear God and love liberty. 
If such serious work had not made them serious men, 
it would utterly have failed. 

What does Cambridge owe to this Puritan spirit ? 
What does she not owe to it ? I fancy that if Shepard, 
Dudley, Dunster, and Sir Harry Vane could revisit 
to-da\^ the scene of their labor, they would marvel at 
the fruit it had brought forth. They would find a 
university, whose vigor and greatness had exceeded 
their fondest hopes ; a city, whose wealth is counted in 
millions where they left thousands, and whose people 
would seem to them in number almost as the sands of 
the sea. But to them these would be the "outward 
things." I think they would ask, "Is there here free- 
dom of conscience to worship God ? Is there tyranny 
of Church or oppression of State ? Are there fear of God 
and love of liberty? As life has become to you easier 
to live, has character grown less sturdy ? Are men still 
ready to suffer for conscience' sake, and die for love of 
country ? " 

What answer should we make ? I would turn to the 
records of our town and city. I would show that in 
1765, four generations after Sir Harry Vane was urging 
the largest liberty among the Puritans, our town was 
leading in the struggle that wrought our independence. 
October 14 of that year in town-meeting was made the 
first formal protest against the memorable Stamp Act, 



FIRST CHURCH OF CAMBRIDGE. 9 

and it was ordered to "be recorded in the Town Books, 
that the children yet unborn may see tlie desire that 
their ancestors had for their freedom and happiness. " 
Then came the tax on tea, and instantly the vote of this 
town that "we can no longer stand idle spectators," 
but will join Boston in any measures "to deliver our- 
selves and posterity from slavery." The spirit of 
Shepard, Vane, and Dudley was speaking through 
Appleton and Stedman, Adams and Hancock. Yes, 
and soon under yonder elm were gathered men still 
ready to suffer for conscience' sake, and die for love 
of country, — few, ragged, half-armed, united in defying 
the strongest nation of the world. Yet when Wash- 
ington found in them the old Puritan spirit he knew 
that there was a force within his grasp that "could 
marshal the conscience " of his country to achieve her 
independence. 

A short century more passes. There comes a struggle 
for human liberty, a call again to patriots and to Puri- 
tans. And Cambridge, first in the whole nation, offers 
her children under the lead of a grandson of a Revolu- 
tionary hero; and our old University, charged with 
being backward in these great agitations, and with 
being forgetful of the Puritan spirit, — though her 
accuser is himself an answer to the charge, — sends 
forth her sons to die for the principles this old church 
has ever taught. 

I have said enough. I hardly think if Shepard were 
with us to-day he would say that the prayers and faith 
of our pious founders had been forgotten, or that after 
eight generations we had proved untrue to the spirit of 
his ministry. 

This is the word the city bids me say to-day. 
Shepard and Mitchel, Dudley and Dunster, all have 
passed away, but each, " though dead, yet speaketh. " 



SPEECH 

ON THE QUESTION OF CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION, 
BOSTON, APRIL, 1889. 

THE citizens of this Commonwealth are asked to 
incorporate into their Constitution this provision : 
"Tlie manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors to 
be used as a beverage are prohibited. The General 
Court shall enact suitable legislation to enforce the 
provisions of this article. " 

It is incumbent upon those who advocate putting 
into the organic law of the State this prohibition upon 
a beverage, to establish its necessity, justice, wisdom, 
and expediency as against all upon whom its restraint 
is to be imposed without their consent and against their 
protest. The question is not whether the advocates of 
this measure have a right to apply it to themselves, but 
how far they have a right to impose it upon others 
against their wishes. 

In answering this question I propose to consider and 
discuss, not so much the strong and familiar objections 
to prohibition, but rather the grounds upon which it is 
advocated. What are these grounds ? They all may 
be comprehended in a single sentence, whatever of form 
or detail they assume. It is urged that the use and sale 
of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is a sin, — not only 
a sin, but a crime of the greatest magnitude, because 
the cause of other and great crimes and vice, and a 
most prolific source of misery and poverty. Observe, 
it is the use and sale, not merely the abuse, of intoxi- 



CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 11 

cants that is thus alle2;ed to be criminal and the source 
of crime ; therefore the absolute prohibition of their 
manufacture and sale is demanded. Without stopping 
to controvert this position of the advocates of proliibi- 
tion, does their position require or justify constitutional 
prohibition ? If the manufacture and sale of intoxi- 
cants are thus criminal, why not prohibit and punish 
them by statute law as we do other and greater crimes ? 
Such law alone can effect prohibition. Constitutional 
prohibition will not enforce itself. There must be 
statute law, or it is a dead letter. Then why not begin 
where we must end ? Without such law, constitutional 
prohibition is useless and hopeless; with it, it is 
needless. 

Both our National and State courts have constantly 
decided that there is abundant authority under our 
present Constitution to pass most stringent and imper- 
ative legislation to prohibit the manufacture and sale 
of liquor. If, then, the premises of the prohibitionists 
are sound, why seek a constitutional amendment ? 
Why not go at once to where they must come at last, — 
statute enactment ? 

But, again, it will hardly be contended by the most 
extreme prohibitionists that the act they seek to pro- 
hibit is a greater crime than murder, arson, rape, 
burglary, highway robbery, embezzlement, etc. I say 
it will not be so contended, because amid all their exag- 
geration they do not demand to have like penalties 
attached to it. No one suggests as a proper penalty 
for it death, state prison for life or for years. If it 
is a lesser crime, why put its prohibition into the 
Constitution, and leave out all the others ? Does not 
such distinction come almost within the Biblical ad- 
monition, " Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites ! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, 



12 CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 

and have omitted the wcit^htier matters of the law"? 
Is not this especially true when the crimes above stated 
are universally recognized as crimes, while the act pro- 
posed to be made a crime by constitutional enactment 
is far from being so recognized ? The reason for their 
omission from the Constitution is a plain and proper one. 
The Constitution was intended for no such purpose. Its 
purpose here, as in every country, is to establish general 
principles, and to be itself a frame of government. It 
provides the proper body to make, construe, and execute 
the laws, and clothes each with ample power. Its end 
is to provide proper agencies for governing, but not 
to do their work. The Legislature is its agency to make 
laws, and especially to define crimes, just as the 
judiciary and the executive branches of government 
are its agencies to construe and enforce laws already 
made. To enact by the Constitution a law which is 
wholly within the power and the proper functions of 
the Legislature, is just as absurd as by the same means 
to do the detailed work of either of the other branches 
of government. 

But, assuming all their premises, will the advocates 
of prohibition tell us what is the necessity for constitu- 
tional enactment ? The answer usually made to this 
question, and by men thoroughly earnest and conscien- 
tious, is, " We want stability of action, A prohibitory 
law passed to-day might be repealed to-morrow. We 
want prohibition fixed by organic law." Let us fairly 
consider this answer. If a prohibitory law is passed, 
it cannot be repealed or modified, unless a majority of 
the people wish it and so decide. Is it seriously con- 
tended that prohibition can or ought to be maintained, 
whether by organic law or statute amendment, against 
the wishes of a majority of the people. Is that the 
purpose of putting it into the Constitution ? Is it in 



CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 13 

order that a minority may control the will of the 
majority ? Surely not, so long as we are to be a govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, for the people. 
Yet stability of action on this subject beyond the power 
of the Legislature can only be secured by sacrificing 
the will of the majority and the principle that a major- 
ity shall rule. 

Suppose, however, prohibition is established by con- 
stitutional amendment, and a majority of the people are 
or become opposed to it: what will be the result ? 

One of two things : either, as in Rhode Island to-day, 
an utter disregard of the constitutional provision, and a 
demand for its repeal, or a refusal by the Legislature 
to enforce its provisions. If there is danger, as its 
advocates say, in a sentiment so hostile to prohibition 
that men will each year at the polls raise an issue over 
statute prohibition, why may we not have the greater 
danger that they will thus agitate each year constitu- 
tional change ? Which is the greater evil ? 

Again, if popular sentiment is hostile to prohil)ition, 
what is to hinder the Legislature from utterly nullifying 
the law, or making it ineffective ? This need not be by 
an absolute refusal to enact any legislation. It may 
be done quite as easily by inadequate legislation, or 
with inadequate provision for its enforcement. There 
is now in our Constitution a tax upon the right of 
suffrage, — in my opinion unjust and undemocratic. 
This has become of late years very unpopular; but a 
minority in the Legislature continues to retain it. 
But to some extent they meet the popular demand for 
a change by making the tax smaller, and easier to be 
borne. 

A better illustration still of this point is the provision 
of the United States Constitution for the rendition of 
fugitive slaves. This provision was believed before 



14 CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 

the war by vast numbers of our citizens to be unjust, 
oppressive, and unchristian. So it was practically 
annulled by inadequate and hostile legislation, or by 
refusal to enforce such laws as were enacted. If popular 
sentiment is behind prohibition, it will at once develop 
in statute law; if it is not, constitutional enactment 
will be a dead letter. 

Many of our people protest against the failure of 
others to observe properly the Sabbath day. In defer- 
ence to this sentiment, would it be wise and useful to 
put into the Constitution the following provision : " Vio- 
lation of the Lord's day is prohibited. The General 
Court shall enact suitable legislation to enforce the 
provisions of this article. " Does any one believe that 
such an amendment would lead to a better observance 
of the Sabbath, or accomplish anything else than to 
make what are now violations of statute law violations 
of constitutional law, and bring the Constitution into 
disrespect? In case of a popular sentiment hostile to 
constitutional prohibition, why may not the General 
Court, sustained by such sentiment, say that "suitable 
legislation to enforce such prohibition" is a statute with 
very mild penalties, and with no provisions specially 
enacted for enforcement. The Legislature is the judge 
of what is "suitable legislation." Is not its power 
practically the same with or without constitutional 
prohibition ? 

As prohibition, then, if necessary or desirable, must, 
to be effective, ultimately rest upon legislation, is it 
not desirable to try it first by legislation, and see 
whether or not it is a success ? 

It is true that it has been tried in this Common- 
wealth under statute law, and has utterly failed and 
broken down under a hostile sentiment. Is constitu- 
tional prohibition, resting for its entire force upon 



CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 15 

statute law, likely to be more successful? Its advocates 
must go further, and put into the organic law, not only 
prohibition, but the entire details of a law to enforce it. 
In this way only can it be independent of legislation, 
and until so independent there is no advance over stat- 
ute prohibition. 

I have tried thus far to look at the matter from the 
standpoint of the advocates of prohibition. It is not 
necessary, but only frank, that I should say that I do 
not believe that general prohibition is the best mode 
of dealing with the liquor problem. Overlooking the 
difference in the circumstances, needs, and public 
opinion of different localities, there is always danger 
that such prohibition may be in name only, but in fact 
freedom from all restrictions, plenty of law, with free 
and untaxed rum. The present local option and high 
license law, with its severe restrictive features, seems 
to me much better and more successful, and in the 
agitation of the Yes and No question in every locality 
each year to do much for the proper education of the 
people in the principles of temperance and morality. I 
am inclined to think that the ultimate solution of the 
problem lies rather in the field of religion than of law, 
rather in persuasion than in force. In this field our 
present law is each year doing a great and successful 
work. It is, therefore, not only unnecessary, but inex- 
pedient to put into organic law legislation which 
must be entirely inoperative unless enforced by other 
legislation, and sustained and demanded by a strong 
public sentiment. 



ADDRESS 

AT ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FEB. 13, 1890. 

C^ LADLY I find myself to-night in the land of the 
J sunny South, and under the charm of its warm- 
hearted hospitality. I come without office or title, yet 
hearing, I am sure, from the old Bay State greeting 
and good wishes to a younger of the thirteen sisters, 
who, joined in sympathy and friendship in days of 
peril and oppression, now in time of peace, indepen- 
dence, and liberty are united as parts of a great re- 
public, joint-heirs of its glorious heritage, and equal 
factors in achieving its grand destiny. Your cordial 
welcome tells me that here I am at home ; and as at 
the old homestead the family long scattered sometimes 
meet, and around its hallowed hearthstone bind more 
closely the tenderest ties of life, and then with renewed 
strength and love share each other's burdens, duties, 
and blessings, so may we to-night, meeting as fellow- 
countrymen, pledge anew our love to a common country, 
and sharing in her glory, consider the duties and perils 
that confront her. In this spirit there is no South, no 
North, nor East, nor West; no burden upon one that 
is not felt by all, — the prosperity of each is the sacred 
duty of all. 

If in speaking of the present there is mingled with it 
necessarily something of the past, and recalling the 
latter brings sorrow with it, let us remember that 
Massachusetts and Georgia both have had their days of 
sunshine and of darkness, and then comfort ourselves 



ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 17 

with those lines, written in the little chapel in the 
Tyrol, that to our greatest poet in his hour of suffer- 
ing seemed to be the footprint of an angel : " Look not 
mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. 
Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to 
meet the future without fear and with a manly heart. " 
The past of sectional discord and fraternal strife comes 
never back again, and for the rest, — 

" No fears to beat away, no strife to heal. 
The past unsighed for, and the future sure." 

Mr. President, I speak to-night for a younger genera- 
tion that, loyal to all that has been, yet dwells not in 
the past, but in a progressive spirit steps forward to 
meet the "new occasions and the new duties," unham- 
pered by prejudices that obstruct, and impatient of the 
spirit that would "attempt the Future's portal with the 
Past's blood-rusted key." I take for my subject this 
sentiment: A new South, a new North, a country re- 
united in love and loyalty, ready and anxious to meet 
the duties of to-day. It is a patriotic theme, suggested 
by the words of one whose fervent patriotism made the 
Nation listen, bound hearts together that were estranged, 
and earned for his memory the noble tribute of a coun- 
try in sorrow for his loss. He 

" Climbed the sunlit heights, 
And from all dissonance 
Struck one clear chord 
That seemed to reach the ears of God." 

I know the sorrow that pervades this meeting ; I feel 
the thought in every mind. A friend, a leader, states- 
man, and patriot has gone.^ He loved the South, but 
spoke for all. With matchless eloquence and the manly 

1 The reference is to Henry W. Grady. 
2 



18 ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 

frankness of a noble soul, he proclaimed the imdjing 
loyalty of seventy million people to our common coun- 
try, to all her institutions, and to all her laws; and 
then he asked forbearance, sympathy, and aid while 
the new South adjusted the past to the present, 
and solved momentous problems, vital to her, vital to 
all, and gave his life in the discharge of this patriotic 
duty. 

Unbounded hospitality and cordial greetings cannot, 
shall not, repress those thoughts that permit me to 
share in your sorrow, and pay to his memory my humble 
tribute of respect and love : — 

" Statesman, yet friend to tmth ! Of soul sincere, 
In action faithful, and in honor clear ; 
AVho broke no promise, served no private end, 
AVho gained no title, and who lost no friend ; 
Ennobled by himself, by all approved, 
Praised, wept, and honored by the land he loved." 

North and South mingle their tears at his loss, gather 
inspiration from bis life, and join hearts and bauds in 
worthily perpetuating his memory. To me has been 
given the sad yet pleasant duty of bringing here from 
the Youno; Men's Democratic Club of Massachusetts its 
contribution to his monument as its tribute to his 
memory. His patriotic purpose, political convictions, 
and progressive spirit represented as truly the six 
hundred young, progressive Democrats of that club as 
it did his own beloved State of (reorgia. As his loss 
was national, so were his life and the lesson of his life. 
"Though dead, he speaketh. " From his new-made 
grave, God grant to-night I may catch the inspiration 
of his teaching, 

Mr. President, war settled, as only war could, an 
irrepressible conflict between institutions that could 



ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 19 

not live together. Statesmen might lull a country to 
repose ; compromises might postpone the dreaded day ; 
but the skeleton was ever in the closet, - — some genera- 
tion had an awful duty to face and to perform. It was 
a sectional difference, involving questions of free insti- 
tutions, constitutional rights, vested interests, and, over 
and above all, sentiment and a higher law. With 
lierQism, suffering, and sacrifices, and intense loyalty to 
honest convictions, each side maintained the conflict, I 
should be false to myself, false to you, and disloyal to 
the sentiment both of my State and yours, if 1 hesitated 
to sa}' that the issue of that conflict was right. Its 
great results are beneficial both to North and South, 
and are now loyally upheld by all our people. One is 
apt, however, to forget that with all the good accom- 
plished, war brings also in its train evils that only time, 
patience, and patriotism can cure. It left the South 
impoverished and exhausted, her fields wasted, her 
railway systems undeveloped and impaired, and her 
wealth destroyed. As in a night it swept away insti- 
tutions that for generations had been her very life, 
and placed her face to face with race and social prob- 
lems, novel and hitherto unsolved; with industrial con- 
ditions for which she had no inherited aptitude or 
training; and questions of government, difficult, threat- 
ening, of vast importance, that must be answered. A 
revolution in ideas followed a revolution in institutions. 
With wonderful courage and energy she entered upon 
her new life. How well she has lived it, how much, 
vastly much, slie has accomplished, you, gentlemen of 
Atlanta, from the experience of this great and growing 
city, can tell better than any words of mine. It has 
been told from the lips of your eloquent orator in lan- 
guage that caught the ear and won the applause of an 
admiring countrv. Manv and creat industries have 



20 ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 

been established. Your railway system has been vastly 
extended. Wealth locked up in your forests and in 
the depths of the earth has been brought to the use of 
man. Education has advanced -with ever-increasing 
strides, and with equal pace justice, thrift, morality, 
and respect for law ; and last, but not least, free labor 
and personal liberty have been demonstrated to be the 
key to industrial and commercial prosperity. Upon 
those principles North and South stand now thoroughly 
reunited, believing in them not only because they are 
right, in harmony with the theory of our government 
and the purpose of its founders, but also because they 
are vital to the welfare, progress, and prosperity of 
every community. As I believe industrial and commer- 
cial prosperity to the South have come from these prin- 
ciples, so, too, I believe from commercial and industrial 
necessity will come the solution of those serious prob- 
lems that still confront you. Remembering the condi- 
tions with which the South had to deal, the revolutionary 
change that had come in her whole life, and measuring 
progress, not only by amount, but by variety, the state- 
ment of a distinguished authority [Edward Atkinson] 
in my own State is true that "she has made progress 
in material welfare exceeding that made in anv sec- 
tion of this country, the West included, in any given 
number of years corresponding to the period which has 
elapsed since 1865." This she has done without the 
protection of any tariff law as against the fiercest 
competition of other sections of the country that had 
every advantage in capital, skill, freights, and long- 
established industries. 

Note. — The census of 1870 showed a loss of $2,100,000,000 in the 
assessed value of property in the South as compared with 1860. Fruni 
1870 there has heen a steady guin.-^--Statistics published in the "Manu- 
facturers' Record" of Dec. 21, 1889, show her marvellous progress in 
the last ten years ; — 



ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 21 

1880 18S9 

(Partly estimated.) 

Assessed value of property .... $2,913,436,095 84,220,166,400 

Railroad mileage 19,431 40,250 

Cost of railroads $679,000,000 $1,500,000,000 

Yield of cotton, bales 5,755,359 7,250,000 

Yield of graiu, bushels 431,074,630 675,000,000 

Number of farm auimals 28,754,243 45,592,536 

Value of live stock $391,412,254 $569,161,550 

Value of chief agricultural products . $571,098,454 $850,000,000 

Coal mined, tous 6,049,471 22,000,000 

Pig iron produced, tons 397,301 1,600,000 

Number of cotton mills 161 355 

Number of spindles 667,854 2,035,268 

Number of looms 14,323 45,000 

Number of cotton-seed oil mills ... 40 213 

Capital invested in cotton-seed oil mills $3,504,000 $20,000,000 

Number of national banks 220 472 

Capital of national banks $45,597,730 $76,454,510 

What the South has accomplished in the way of new industrial enter- 
prises may be seen from the summary of the number organized between 
Jan. 1, 1886, and Sept. 30, 1889, a little less than four years, as compiled 
from the weekly reports of the " Manufacturers' Record " : — 

Iron furnace companies 107 

Machine shops and foundries 416 

Agricultural implement factories 62 

Flour mills 489 

Cotton mills 256 

Furniture factories 207 

Gas works 101 

Water works 313 

Carriage and wagon factories 165 

Electric light companies 433 

Mining and quarrying enterprises 1,623 

Lumber mills, including saw and planing mills, sash and door fac- 
tories, stave factories, etc 2,795 

Ice factories 272 

Canning factories 408 

Stove foundries 25 

Brick works 535 

Miscellaneous iron works, rolling mills, pipe works, etc 157 

Cotton compresses 108 

Cotton-seed oil mills 143 

Miscellaneous enterprises not included in foregoing ...... 4,041 

Total . : 12,656 

Add to these figures the new enterprises organized during the last 
three months of 1889, and the aggregate for the four years will be about 
14,000. 



22 ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 

Truly she has followed the oft-quoted advice of Gov- 
ernor Andrew, and entered upon " a vigorous prosecu- 
tion of the pursuits of peace. " 

But, Sir, the evils that flowed from the war were by 
no means confined to the South. It is true the rest of 
the country did not suffer as the South in its material 
prosperity, nor did it have to meet new conditions of 
life, and to adapt itself to new institutions. It did 
experience a great and unwholesome change in its 
political convictions, in its conception of the purpose, 
power, and scope of government. Force justified by 
war was defended and advocated in time of peace. 
Powers of government, rightly strained to meet the exi- 
gencies of a great peril, were used for other purposes. 
Relations between National and State government, 
adjusted with almost inspired wisdom by the framers of 
our Constitution, and uj)held with unceasing vigilance 
for generations, were neglected and disregarded. Undue 
and injurious weight was given to the influence of 
wealth in public life. Selfish interests rode on the box 
of government, and drove it to use its great powers for 
their selfish purposes. Extravagance and corruption, 
hitherto almost unknown, stalked abroad in the land, 
and scandals and jobbery entered the halls of legisla- 
tion. With them, too, remained as a relic of the war, 
sectional prejudice and ill-will, — an evil in itself, but 
breeding other evils and curing none. It blinded the 
North to a just estimate of the condition of the South, 
to the difficulties that beset her, and their proper 
remedy. It used force where neither reason nor law 
would justify it, and strained the powers of govern- 
ment beyond their constitutional limitations. 

Many evils of the war have been cured, and all have 
been cured that tended to divide the country by sec- 
tional prejudice upon sectional lines. Fancuil Hall 



ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 23 

since the war has uttered her indignant and non- 
partisan protest against the improper use of National 
power in the State of Louisiana. The old Cradle of 
Liberty spoke then the sentiment of Massachusetts, 
just as she would speak it to-day against any National 
invasion of State rights or State duties, whether that 
power comes bearing gifts or with force of arms. The 
Supreme Court, with that impartiality and political 
integrity that have won the respect and confidence of 
the whole country and all parties, has undone much 
legislation founded upon sectional prejudice and 
enacted for sectional and partisan purposes, and it has 
re-established that proper relation of State to National 
government which is necessary for the safe working of 
our political system. Best of all, that bitter sectional 
feeling expressed by the " Stalwart " of the North and 
the " Bourbon " of the South has now no weight in 
determining political action, and has lost its virtue even 
for party purposes. There may be still some aged non- 
combatants in Massachusetts, as there may be in Geor- 
gia, who cling to old prejudices, and would like now to 
fight the war. But a new generation has come upon 
the field, intensely loyal to the results of the war, gath- 
ering inspiration from the patriotism and brave deeds 
of the past, but absolutely uninfluenced by any of its 
prejudices. They believe rather in the sentiment of 
Macaulay: "It is now time for us to pay a decent, a 
rational, a manly reverence to our ancestors, not by 
superstitiously adhering to what they in other circum- 
stances did, but by doing what they in our circumstances 
would have done. " A very large per cent of the voters 
in 1892 were too young to have had any part in the war. 
Enough voters of this year have been born since 1865 
to turn more than one-half of the congressional dis- 
tricts of the country. This is a young influence, guided 



24 ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 

wholly by the present, and not the past, who believe 
that in and between all sections there should be loyalty, 
fraternity, and charity. It is too late to speak of sec- 
tional feeling when Southern soldiers have placed their 
garlands on Bunker Hill, and the veterans North and 
South have met again on the old battlefields in friend- 
ship and in love, and exchanged the trophies of war. 
Other more material things, such as business interests 
and railroads, have woven the silken ties of mutual 
interests that have hastened the good work of binding 
more closely together North and South. We realize 
and welcome now the fulfilment of the wish expressed 
by Webster in 1847 at Savannah : " Others may value 
this Union of Confederated States as a convenience, or 
an arrangement, or a compromise of interests ; but I 
desire to see an attachment to the Union existing 
among the people, not as a deduction of political 
economy nor as a result of philosophical reasoning, but 
cherished as a heartfelt sentiment.''^ In all of this 
there has been a new North as well as a new South. 
Sectionalism as a constant threatening peril and disturb- 
ing force has gone forever. 

The death of sectional ill-will and the removal of its 
cause have reawakened the interest of the whole country 
to the duties and perils of the present, and put her in 
condition thoroughly to deal with them. Much good 
has been accomplished, as evidenced by the fact of a 
new South and a new North. Much is yet to be done 
by the united effort of that new North and South. The 
conscience of this Nation must be marshalled to assert 
its independence of selfish influences and selfish con- 
trol ; to give back to the people the right to govern 
themselves, and then have their delegated power used 
for their own, and not for selfish or partisan purposes. 
I am too young to be a pessimist, too loyal to the integ- 



ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 25 

rity, patriotism, and common-sense of our people to 
doubt for an instant that they will remove present 
perils, as they have all others that threatened the wel- 
fare of our beloved country. I do not believe that 
the remedy lies in legislation for special interests, in 
National ^ifts or bounties for special purposes, in 
National assumption of the rights or duties of the States, 
or in National control of the suffrage of a free and self- 
governing people; nor does it lie in vastly increased 
expenditure, in extravagance, or in allowing organized 
wealth selfishly to control political power and the 
people's law; nor in substituting any man's will for 
established law; nor in making public office party 
spoils. Rather, all these are parts of the very thing to 
be corrected. They rest upon a novel, baleful concep- 
tion of our government, bred of war, fostered by a great 
party for its selfish purposes, and now so threatening 
as to demand immediate, thorough, and unflinching 
treatment. Stripped, in all its nakedness, that concep- 
tion is that our government is one of benefits and 
bounties by a party for it and its beneficiaries rather 
than " of the people, by the people, for the people. " 

Where is the remedy ? It is in organizing public 
opinion to enact and sustain laws that will keep the 
source of political power pure, and its exercise free from 
partisan and selfish purposes. 

Three great political reforms are now before the 
country, each seeking in itself to accomplish a great 
good, but all more important in bringing our govern- 
ment back to the spirit, purpose, and wisdom of its 
founders, and to those principles vital to the welfare, 
permanence, and progress of our political institutions. 

The first is ballot reform, — to correct evils that exist 
at the very source of political power. It is founded on 
the democratic principle of the right of every man to 



26 ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 

cast his ballot independently, conscientiously, intel- 
ligently, free from all corrupt or undue influence. It 
throws about him the })rotection of law to guard him 
against evils that exist and have been felt throughout 
the country, and which, if unchecked, threaten the 
stability of our institutions. It is the first step in 
giving back to the people tlie right to govern them- 
selves. I rejoice that Massachusetts has led in this as 
she has in many other reforms. It was suggested and 
supported by both parties, and while no doubt open to 
improvement in details, was a great success, and is 
now upheld by all the people. It freed votes that never 
were free before, destroyed the power of selfish and 
money influence, and gave us an election as pure as 
any that ever blessed the old Commonwealth. I doubt 
not that Georgia and Massachusetts will join hands in 
advancing this reform as they join now in belief in its 
principle and purpose. 

The second reform is of the civil service, — to make 
the people's servants represent and serve the people, 
and not a party, and to prevent the abuse of their 
trust in using, as an organized army, public office 
to wage war on the political convictions of half the 
people, whose interests alone they are sworn to serve. 
This is another step in giving back to the people 
their own, and in having their own used for their own 
purposes. 

Georgia has suffered under a merciless proscription 
that for years not only shut out her citizens from the 
public service of the Nation, if true to their political 
convictions, but used that service against those con- 
victions. Georgia has loyally sustained a brave and 
patriotic President, who in this first led the people 
out of their bondage, and ])ointcd out the dawn of a 
new day. Georgia and Massachusetts, a new South and 



ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 27 

a new North, can and will unite in making this reform 
an accomplished fact. 

The third reform is of the tariff, — a commercial and 
industrial necessity to broaden the field of our ac- 
tivity; but far and beyond that, it is a political and 
moral necessity, to limit the power of government to 
public purposes, to distribute equally its burdens and 
its benefits, to make law just, equal, respected, because 
free from entangling alliance with selfish interests, 
and untainted by selfish control. No law is just whose 
purpose, aim, and end is to take from one to give to 
another, and make the benefit of a few a burden upon 
all. Such laws come only from halls of legislation 
over whose portal is written the words of Bastiat, 
"Whoever has influence here may have his share of the 
legalized pillage." Let law be the power that stands 
beside the humblest individual to protect him in making 
the most of himself, and in guarding sacredly the fruit 
of his labor, rather than a power to be invoked to make 
or to unmake wealth. It is not its function "to take 
from the worthy the things they have labored for, in 
order to give to the unworthy the things they have not 
earned. " Because this reform means something more 
than any question of revenue or taxation, because it 
involves the fundamental principles of sound democratic 
government, and seeks to limit its power to public and 
to proper purposes, it is the most important question 
of the day, — the hopeful cure of the most threatening 
evil that has followed in the wake of war. It is the 
people's cause. Its triumph is death to the control by 
organized wealth of elections and legislation, a restora- 
tion of political power to the people, and a guarantee 
that the people's law shall be used only for the people's 
interests. 

Mr. President, the war is over in both North and 



28 ADDRESS AT ATLANTA. 

South. Its benefits are permanent, its evils can be 
remedied. That is the duty of to-day, — easy to accom- 
plish by a new North and a new South reunited in love 
and loyalty. Not for generations has there been so 
little to divide, so much to unite, the North and 
South, and, reunited, so nmch for them to do. As our 
fathers bravely met the duties of their day, so let us, 
unfettered by the past, bravely meet the duties of our 
day, seeking only truth, justice, liberty, the welfare, 
honor, and progress of our beloved country. 



ADDRESS 

TO THE HAEVARD ALUMNI AT CAMBRIDGE ON COM- 
MENCEMENT DAY, JUNE 24, 1891. 

IT is a pleasure to hear this cordial welcome which 
you give the Commonwealth through me, to sit at 
your hospitable board, and to join in the tribute of 
praise and love which each year the sons of Harvard 
bring to Alma Mater. Hitherto I have come only as 
one of her children, to cherish here in the old home- 
stead the memory of life's young day, with its work 
and its mischief, its day-dreams and its struggles, 
when "life's enchanted cup " was "sparkling to the 
brim," and to recall with equal pleasure how Mother 
Harvard used to pat our heads or pull our ears. 

I am bound to confess, Mr. President, that my class 
to-day, in its sedate and settled age, is rather proud of 
the fact that under your vigorous influence it showed 
activity in many and various directions ; that old '77 
is still remembered by the ambitious undergraduate 
as an incentive and a precedent for doing something 
useful or otherwise. Perhaps its "crowded hour 
of glorious life was worth an age without a name. " 
There was just enough friction between it and the 
Faculty to make both active, and enough activity to 
keep both healthy. So mutually beneficial was this 
relation that it was hard for both to have a formal 
and a final parting. The class never would or could 
agree to have a class day with its sad ceremonies of 
final leave-taking, nor would the Faculty agree to let us 



30 HARVARD ALUMNI. 

all go, but kept in its lingering, loving embrace a 
score or more with whom she has parted slowly, sor- 
rowfully, and by degrees. But if '77 worried Alma 
Mater, and in its closing days tried her patience until 
she was ready to exclaim, with Lady Macbeth, " Stand 
not upon the order of your going, but go at once," let 
me say, in atonement for its mischief, that Harvard has 
to-day no sons more loyal to her, none more proud of 
her, nor more grateful for all she is and was to 
them. 

But enough of reminiscence. My class is far within 
the age when one of its members is delegated to speak 
for it at this anniversary. I am not called upon to 
speak for Harvard's children, but for Harvard's mother, 
the good old Commonwealth of Massachusetts. For 
Harvard is distinctly the child of the State, born of it 
in the early days of struggle and of poverty, when 
pious ancestors were founding great institutions that 
were to be the strength of unborn generations. 

With wonderful foresight, they seemed to know that 
the fruition of their work was to be the creation of a 
nation, and that nation was to be the beacon-light to 
lead a world, awakening to the new thought of self- 
government, freedom, and the rights of man. 

So, with severe labor but remarkable sagacity, they 
laid its foundations deep and strong in the school-house, 
the college, the church, and the town-meeting. They 
knew that an intelligent, independent. God-fearing 
people were the basis of all free institutions and of a 
prosperous Commonwealth. 

As one of the earliest of their works, and nearly 
coincident with the first grammar-school and printing- 
press, they founded this College, with the famous grant 
of X400 from the General Court. Then, in 1642, 
speaking through Dunster, her first president, and 



HARVARD ALUMNI. 31 

Sheparcl, and in the spirit so successfully followed by 
her later presidents, she appealed to the united colonies 
for recognition and support on the ground that " their 
recognition would bo both honorable to the country 
and in especial manner to those scholars whose various 
inclinations to all professions might thereby be encour- 
aged," and to the end ""that the Commonwealth may 
be furnished with knowing and understanding men, and 
the church with an able ministry." This appeal was 
answered by the promise to give " some yearly help by 
pecks, half bushels, and bushels of wheat." So they 
gave from their poverty, as later generations have from 
their wealth, for the building up of this great university, 
because of her value and her service to the Common- 
wealth and to the country. 

I need not trace step by step the history of the close 
relation between the College and the State. It is 
enough to say that, in her gifts, her exemptions, and 
her government. Harvard, to the full extent of her 
needs and her desires, has always had thrown about 
her the strong protecting arm of the State. If in later 
years this relation has been less close, it is only 
because Harvard, in the full maturity of her strength, 
has not needed this direct support or guidance. The 
devotion of each to the other has not been lessened in 
its interest or its loyalty. 

I have spoken of Harvard as the child of the State. 
I know that she is sometimes called the child of the 
Church. I do not forget the religious character of her 
origin, nor that Harvard, Shepard, Cotton, and Wil- 
son, with their godly associates, gave her existence 
and shaped her early destiny. I remember her seal 
with its "Veritas," and her traditional dedication 
" Christo et EcclesijB ; " but only as the Church devel- 
oped and became the State was Harvard a Church 



32 HARVARD ALUMNI. 

rather than a State institution. For nearly two hun- 
dred years after the founding of the College there was a 
State religion in Massachusetts. In the close alliance 
of Church and State the College felt its influence, and 
her first president its effects. The College was neces- 
sarily denominational. But when, early in this century, 
the State religion was stricken out of the Constitution, 
as naturally denominationalism went out of her consti- 
tutional College. Harvard remained purely an institu- 
tion of learning, the child of the State, consecrated to 
religion and the best interests of humanity, still true 
to her motto, " Veritas " on the open book, truth from 
knowledge leading through religion to God. 

How has Harvard met the duties and obligations 
laid upon her by this her relation to the Common- 
wealth ? It would be easy for us, with the love and 
pride of children, to recount the merits and services 
of Alma Mater. We could speak of the long line of 
distinguished men who, in giving their lives here to the 
cause of education, have rendered faithful service to the 
Commonwealth; of the countless numbers who have 
gone hence to carry the inspiration of Harvard's teach- 
ing to the wider life that lies outside her walls ; of the 
glorious part Harvard has always taken in every agi- 
tation and struggle to better and uplift humanity, and 
of her brave sons who, to be true to her, were ready 
to suffer and die for love of country. 

But it is better to let the Commonwealth in its own 
language answer the question. One hundred and forty- 
four years after Harvard was founded, the Province of 
Massachusetts Bay became the free and independent 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. There gathered the 
patriots of the Revolution, — Samuel and John Adams, 
Hancock, and their distinguished associates, — to 
frame the Constitution for the new State. Before these 



HARVARD ALUMNI. 83 

grand examiners Harvard College came to take her pre- 
liminaries, her final examination to be by the people 
themselves. 

And what was the result ? These words in that Con- 
stitution : " Whereas our wise and pious ancestors so 
early as the year 1636 laid the foundation of Harvard 
College, in which university many persons of great 
eminence have, by the blessing of God, been instructed 
in those arts and sciences which qualified them for 
public employments both in Church and State; and 
whereas the encouragement of the arts and sciences 
and all good literature tends to the honor of God, the 
advantage of the Christian religion, and the great 
benefit of this and the other United States of America, 
— it is declared that the President and Fellows of Har- 
vard College " shall forever have and maintain their 
rights and possessions ; and it was expressly made the 
duty of the legislatures and the magistrates in all 
future periods of the Commonwealth to "cherish . . . 
especially the university at Cambridge. " 

That was the testimony of the Commonwealth, placed 
in its organic law, to the position, character, patriotism, 
and influence of Harvard after one hundred and forty- 
four years of her life. This provision has stood 
unchanged for more than one hundred years. It has 
passed through two constitutional conventions and one 
hundred and ten legislatures of the Commonwealth, 
and no man yet has suggested the retraction of its senti- 
ment or amendment of its language. 

So to-da}^ better than any words of mine, the good 
old Commonwealth pronounces her benediction upon 
her earliest child. These sacred walls, too, erected by 
loving hands to the memory of Harvard's sons, whom 
she sent forth to die for country, bear silent witness 
that in her later life she has not depai-ted from the 

3 



34 HARVARD ALUMNI. 

principles and patriotism that endeared her to the 
heroes of the Revolution. 

I know that Harvard has her critics. I know that 
dogmatists in religion and dogmatists in politics have 
attacked her and criticised her teaching. But so long 
as Memorial Hall shall stand, so long as her record 
is unforgotten, and the Constitution unchanged, neither 
her patriotism nor her teaching needs apology or 
defence. From her highest officer to her humblest 
graduate she strives to find the truth, then dares to 
proclaim and defend it. She seems to catch and 
impart the inspiration of her motto, and to speak in 
the spirit of the old hymn, — 

" Oh, let all the soul within you, 
For the truth's sake, go abroad; 
Strike ! let every nerve and sinew 
Tell on ages, tell for God." 



ADDRESS 

AT A PUBLIC RECEPTION TENDERED EX-PRESIDENT 
CLEVELAND AT SANDWICH, JULY 25, 189L 

THE Commonwealth greatly appreciates the kindly 
greeting given her whenever her children gather 
together, in work or in pleasure, for service to her, or 
for social intercourse with each other. I know she 
loves to answer their welcome by bringing to them her 
congratulations and her blessing, and by joining them, 
not only in their labor, but in those gentle charities 
and courtesies which make life easier and happier. A 
mother's benediction meets the children's pledge of 
loyalty, and all of us are drawn closer to the State and 
to each other by this constant interchange of loving 
sentiment. 

The sturdy citizens of Cape Cod, laying aside for the 
time all distinctions of party, meet to-day to extend a 
hearty welcome to our distinguished guest. 1 know 
that you are glad to have the Commonwealth, standing 
as she does above all differences of political opinion, 
join with you in welcoming to her borders the Ex- 
President of the United States, whom you gladly greet 
as a neighbor and a friend. It is hard to express the 
full significance of our welcome and the sentiment of 
this great meeting without indulging in eulogy distaste- 
ful to our guest; and yet. Sir, on this occasion, when 
thousands have come hither to pay to you their tribute 
of respect and honor, it would be harder still not to 



36 RECEPTION TO EX-PRESIDENT CLEVELAND. 

give some expression to their thought, and to utter the 
word of praise which you have rightly earned by 
faithful public service, and by the integrity, courage, 
and patriotism with which you have discharged the 
duties of high ofificial position. 

Having the full confidence of the people, and keeping 
ever closely in touch with them and their interests, 
you have been chosen to important positions of public 
trust, and finally to the place of highest honor and 
greatest political power within the gift of man. 

It is not fitting, here in the presence of men who 
have honest differences of opinion on political ques- 
tions, for those of us who were in close sympathy with 
your administration to recall and praise the many 
measures which in the people's interest you promoted; 
nor is it necessary, for the country has not forgotten 
them. But, sacrificing no political conviction, we can 
all meet to-day on the one common ground of recogniz- 
ing duty well and bravely done, whether by political 
friend or political opponent. 

We recall that throughout your term of arduous ser- 
vice you strove to raise the standard of public life from 
the low level of personal and selfish ends to the high 
plane of duty and patriotism. Every man to-day 
clothed with official responsibility, and striving hon- 
estly to meet it, is strengthened in his efforts by the 
courageous standard which you dared to set. We 
recall with what singleness of purpose and forgetfulness 
of self you summoned the conscience and intelligence 
of the country to an examination and discussion of 
grave measures of public policy, and, in an earnest 
effort to serve the people, were willing to sacrifice 
personal ambition and to give up power. To you a 
campaign of education for the people seemed more 
important than personal success. 



EECEPTION TO EX-PRESIDENT CLEVELAND. 37 

We do not forget that when self-interest would have 
whispered to you her timid counsel, you dared to 
interpose your veto on the abuse of a nation's gener- 
osity, and were willing to run the risk of misconstruc- 
tion that you might rise to the full height of patriotic 
duty. We do not here discuss the right or the wrong 
of the measures of your administration. Upon these, 
men may honestly differ, and do differ ; but we gladly 
join in praising the virtues of the man that were potent 
in and through official life. Patriotism, courage, and 
unselfishness gave a character to your administration 
that won the respect and will remain in the memory 
of the Nation. 

But it is not only the Ex-President, but the man, 
whom Ave gladly welcome among us. Out of office, 
stripped of power, you still come close to the hearts of 
the people, still hold their respect and their confidence. 
Still is your voice a powerful influence in moulding 
and guiding public opinion on the questions of the day. 
It seems to me not inappropriate, as an illustration 
of this influence, to refer to a public service you have 
recently rendered. The time has come when the 
agricultural interests in great sections of our country 
feel and justly complain of burdens which weigh heavily 
upon them. Many of us believe, with you, that these 
burdens are chiefly due to unequal and unjust taxation, 
and that the best remedy is to follow the clear path 
you have pointed out; but in their distress, seeking for 
relief, they have turned also to other remedies, among 
them one which is opposed by the conservative opinion 
of the country and the nearly unanimous sentiment of 
the people of this Commonwealth. 

Massachusetts believes in a sound currency. She 
will not lend her aid to any movement, whatever may 
be its source, and however honest may be its purpose, 



38 RECEPTION TO EX-PRESIDENT CLEVELAND. 

which in its result would debase our currency, unsettle 
credit, impair values, and give to labor in depreciated 
money less than its just dues. Her people sincerely 
believe that such a movement mistakes the remedy for 
a just grievance, and will but add to the distress it 
seeks to relieve. 

The country, with a confidence in you of which any 
man in private life might well be proud, listened for 
the expression of your opinion. It would have been 
easy to remain silent, or to have given an answer meant 
to hide rather than declare your views. That was the 
course pointed out by self-interest and political ambi- 
tion; but had you followed it, you would have been 
untrue to the people and untrue to yourself. The 
patriot and the man of conviction dares to tell the 
people the truth, and to take the consequences. We 
mingle with our welcome to-day our admiration for the 
courage that led you fearlessly and emphatically to state 
your convictions, and again to lead public opinion to a 
right conception of an important public question. 

Gladly and sincerely, I am sure, the people of the 
Cape extend to you this hearty welcome. It is a wel- 
come from a sturdy, upright people, simple in their 
tastes, honest in their convictions, patriotic in their 
spirit, typical of the virtues that have given strength 
and prosperity to our beloved Commonwealth. I know 
that among them you will find that "your lines are 
fallen in pleasant places," and that you will give to 
their friendship and esteem a high place among the 
honors which have been bestowed upon you. 



ADDRESS 

AT THE DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT COMMEMO- 
KATING THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON, AT BENNING- 
TON, AUG. 19, 1891. 

TT is always a privilege and a pleasure to give voice 
■*■ to the sentiment of friendship and of love that 
hallows and glorifies the union of our sisterhood of 
States in one great, powerful, and permanent Nation. 
It adds to the pleasure when, as to-day, with this senti- 
ment we can mingle our congratulations in recalling 
two great epochs in the history of a State when cour- 
age, patriotism, and perseverance gave life and inde- 
pendence to her, greater safety and strength to her sister 
States, and to our common country a bright page in its 
glorious history. 

Gladly I bring to you from the old Bay State her 
congratulations and her love as the unanimous senti- 
ment of her sturdy and patriotic children. This senti- 
ment is but the natural, spontaneous feeling between 
States whose relations have always been those of amity, 
good- will, and support from the early days when these 
green hills had but begun to develop the life which 
a century ago matured in a free and independent State. 

In her struggle with her nearest neighbors, who loved 
her quite too much to give her up, Vermont had all 
the sympathy Massachusetts could give, without her- 
self becoming embarrassed in her family relations. 
Long before Ethan Allen bore to astonished Ticonde- 



40 DEDICATION OF MONUMENT AT BENNINGTON. 

roga "the command of the Continental Congress and 
the great Jehovah," yes, even before the days of Wolfe 
and Montcalm, Massachusetts looked to the brave sons 
of the Green Mountains as an insuperable barrier 
between her and her foes, — a barrier tried and found 
true a little later in the victory we justly commemorate 
as the turning-point in the dark days of our Revolution, 
and again tried and again true a generation later in 
McDonough's gallant victory on Lake Champlain. 

Shoulder to shoulder stood Massachusetts and Ver- 
mont in those days of conflict ; hand in hand have they 
walked since, sharing each other's joys and sorrows 
throuo-h the sunshine and the clouds which have broken 
over our fair Republic. 

Massachusetts has a deep interest in this commemo- 
rative monument. It recalls the valor of her sons ; the 
union of all, heart and hand, for the common weal ; 
the sacrifices of the fathers for the liberty of the chil- 
dren; the beginning of a great nation; the courage, 
patriotism, and struggle that wrought its independence, 
and founded free institutions that wouM insure to its 
people happiness and prosperity, and lead the world to 
a truer, nobler life. 

So the mother States, as together they shared the 
labor of the struggle, the glory and fruits of the victory, 
so together, generously, gratefully, they erect this 
monument, that the struggle and victory may live 
forever. The acts of States rather than the words of 
men are the fitting tribute to brave deeds bravely done 
for love of country. 

" Wut 's words to them whose faith an' truth 
On war's red techstone rang true metal ; 
Who ventered life an' love an' youth 
For the great prize of death in battle ? " 



DEDICATION OF MONUMENT AT BENNINGTON. 41 

But to-day we commemorate not one event only. A 
century ago Vermont, first of the great incoming sister- 
hood, took her place among what the poet calls the 
"stars of glory." Not large in territory, not signifi- 
cant in population, yet she has ever maintained in our 
Union a position of stability, influence, patriotism, and 
power which has made her a potent factor in the well- 
being and progress of our continental Republic. 

To-day we think of her not only as the Vermont 
whom Stark and Allen made famous, not only as the 
pleasant land of hill and valley, but as the greater 
Vermont, who has sent her children forth from ocean to 
ocean to build up the nation, and to stamp upon it the 
sterling virtues of sturdy New England life. 

The statistician will tell us that Vermont is stationary, 
that her population does not increase. Yes, she is sta- 
tionary, as the family home is stationary, because those 
wlio have been born into it have gone forth from it 
in obedience to the great law which God gave man, — 
to subdue and replenish the earth. Her children have 
made her influence felt throughout the Union, because 
they have carried forth from the home the mother's 
teaching, the courage, strength, and character which 
seem to be bone of her bone and blood of her blood. 
It is her life rather than her size, her virtues rather 
than her riches, that have made her prominent and 
powerful. Here in this rugged, typical New England 
State have been exemplified the glowing words of our 
liberty-loving, undying Lowell, — 

"Before man made us citizens, great Nature made us men." 

So as we stand to-day beside the rushing river of our 
prosperity, and strive to trace its sources, we find one 
of its clear and sparkling fountains amid the green 
hills of Vermont. 



42 DEDICATION OF MONUMENT AT BENNINGTON. 

In tlicir life and work, their character and virtues, 
their purpose and influence, Vermont and Massachu- 
setts stand close together with mutual love and esteem, 
each for the other. Massachusetts has never failed in 
her interest in Vermont, and especially in Bennington, 
from the da}' when Stark sent to our Commonwealth 
the trophies of his victory (still reverently preserved) ; 
and in return she voted him her thanks, a suit of 
clothes, and a piece of linen, and again a century later 
made her generous contribution to this his monument. 

Our affection for our sister State is none the less if 
we do not settle within her borders, but cling with filial 
love to the old Bay State, and there as here enjoy 
the beauty, simplicity, and vigor of our New England 
life. 

In 1782, when John Adams was minister at the 
Hague, his wife, in his absence, purchased lands in 
Vermont, and suggested a removal there at some future 
time. Our gifted minister, broken in health and worn 
in mind, wrote in despair : " What is to become of the 
independent statesman, one who will bow the knee to 
no idol, who will worship nothing as a divinity but 
truth, virtue, and his country ? " And then he exclaims : 
"0 Peace, when wilt thou permit me to visit Penn's 
Hill, Milton Hill, and all the Blue Hills ? I love every 
tree and every rock upon all those mountains. Roving 
among these will be the amusement of my declining 
years. God willing, I will not go to Vermont; 1 must 
be within scent of the sea. " 

So to-day, as the children of Vermont cherish with 
special love and reverence their native State, we too 
cannot forget our native hills and valleys and rock- 
bound coast, our Greylock, our Wachusett, our Berk- 
shire and our Blue Hills, around which are nestled 
so much of comfort, prosperity, and happiness, and to 



DEDICATION OF MONUMENT AT BENNINGTON. 43 

which we longingly turn for rest and for peace. Much 
as we love and honor Vermont, we must say, with John 
Adams, God willing, we will not go to Vermont ; we 
must be within the scent of the sea. But there it will 
be our pride and our pleasure, as it is our blessed 
privilege, to do whatsoever we may to sustain the life 
and the principles which have made Vermont and Mas- 
sachusetts alike the home of the happy and the brave. 



ADDRESS 

AT THE DINNER GIVEN BY THE FRENCH SOCIETIES OF 
MASSACHUSETTS TO HON. AVILFRED LAURIER, LEADER 
OF THE LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA, NOV. 17, 1891. 

I AM glad, Mr. Chairman, to partake of your gen- 
erous hospitality, and to join with my fellow- 
citizens in extending a cordial welcome to your distin- 
guished guest and his friends who to-night honor us 
with their presence. 

We recognize in this compliment to him not only the 
great influence he, as an orator, statesman, and leader, 
exerts in the public affairs of his own country, but the 
wide reputation he has established, far beyond her 
limits, for distinguished public service. 

Speaking for a large and worthy body of our fellow- 
citizens who are bound to you, our guests, by closest 
ties and warmest sympathy, and bound to our old 
Commonwealth as faithful, loyal citizens, devoted to 
her institutions, active in her progress, earnest in all 
her work, proud of her history, her honor, and her pros- 
perity, I know I voice their sentiment when I say they 
feel especial pride and pleasure in welcoming you to 
our State. But speaking also for all our people, and 
for the Commonwealth herself, I gladly extend to you 
this welcome. 

We know the ability and merit which have distin- 
guished your public life. We also know to-night you 
come to us representing a neighboring, friendly country, 



DINNER TO HON. WILFRED LAURIER. 45 

which has much in common with us, and which each 
year is coming into closer relations with our Nation 
and our Connnonwealth. To you personally, and to 
you as a distinguished son of Canada, our welcome is 
extended. 

It is a pleasure, after weeks of earnest party strife, 
where public questions have divided us on party lines, 
to-night to touch upon a question, suggested by the 
presence of our guests, upon which our business inter- 
ests and our people are substantially agreed, quite clear 
of party division. 

Our country and Canada, separated by only an imag- 
inary line for three thousand miles of contiguous ter- 
ritory, interlocked by railroads and waterways, each 
blessed with special advantages in producing and sell- 
ing what the other needs, bound together by many 
interests in common, — these two great neighbors, I 
believe, were intended to be friends, and, as friends, 
to have the closest trade and commercial relations, 
which cannot but be for their mutual interest. 

Notwithstanding the restrictions which in both coun- 
tries have been imposed by the hand of man as limita- 
tions upon natural conditions, still a trade of nearly 
$100,000,000 annually exists between us, fairly evenly 
divided into exports and imports. 

We purchase of Canada necessaries of life for our 
people and materials for our industries, and she of us, in 
return, food, manufactiu'cs, and crude materials which 
add to the comfort of her people and to her own 
growth and prosperity. In this trade Massachusetts 
and New England have a great and growing interest. 
To us in this State it means a benefit God intended for 
us through our sea- coast location, a greater prosperity 
for our industries, a larger market for their products, 
and easier conditions of life for all our people. 



46 DINNER TO HON. WILFRED LAURIER. 

It means, as this trade becomes fuller and freer, that 
we, too, can have natural advantages now enjoyed by 
other sections of our country, and can offset their com- 
petition, which we are beginning to feel, by opening up 
wider markets on the north for our manufactured 
products. 

With existing restrictions removed, or largely modi- 
fied, I do not doubt great benefit will come to both 
countries, and Boston, with her enterprise, her energy 
and industry, can be the commercial metropolis, not 
only of New England, but of the great country beyond. 

Much of the prosperity of our country is due to that 
wise provision of our Constitution which compels abso- 
lute freedom of trade between all our States. Under it 
all sections of our country have grown, their resources 
been developed, and their industries established and 
diversified. 

Such policy established between this and neighboring 
countries, but wisely modified and limited to meet 
necessary conditions, I believe would foster a larger 
trade between us, whose benefits all would reap. 

The views I have expressed are but a repetition of the 
opinion often stated by our Press, our business interests, 
our people, and by leaders of both parties in every 
section of our country. 

In the fall of 1889, at hearings here before a com- 
mittee of the United States Senate, the heads of our 
commercial organizations and leading business men 
and manufacturers, without distinction of party, were 
united in their opinion in favor of some policy which 
should lead to fuller and freer trade with Canada. 

There was, and perhaps is, a difference of o[)inion as 
to the means by which this shall be accomplished. In 
view of our experience with Canada under reciprocity, 
and the evident growth of sentiment in recent years in 



DINNER TO HON. WILFRED LAURIER. 47 

that direction, for one, I firmly believe that a large and 
liberal policy of reciprocity would establish those closer 
commercial relations between our countries, equally 
desired, I trust, by both, and certain to be for the benefit 
of both. 

Because, Sir, I know the sentiment of this Common- 
wealth is one of cordial friendship to your country, 
because I believe it is her earnest wish that this friend- 
ship may ripen into closer relations of advantage to 
both, 1 extend to you and your associates her heartiest 
welcome, and her wish that your stay among us may be 
both pleasant and useful. Massachusetts is always 
proud to welcome any distinguished stranger, and to 
extend to him her right hand of fellowship. This 
welcome you have fully earned. But the welcome is 
the more cordial because you represent that liberal 
spirit which would bind nations together in trade and 
friendship, and so promote the peace of the world and 
the happiness and prosperity of all its people. 



ADDRESS 

AT THE OPENING OF THE NEW BUILDING OF THE 
BOSTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, JAN. 21, 1892. 

MY part to-night is a simple but a very pleasant one, 
— to extend the hearty welcome of the Common- 
wealth to the distinguished guests who honor us with 
their presence, and our cordial congratulations to the 
Chamber of Commerce, as to-day, in its new and better 
quarters, it enters upon a new lease of life, filled with 
hope and with promise, and then to enjoy with you the 
words of wit and wisdom of those who follow me. 

Most gladly I extend the greeting of the Common- 
wealth to all our guests. We know they come to 
rejoice in our rejoicing, to bind still closer the sister- 
hood of States, not only in trade and commerce, but in 
friendship and good-will. 

As we welcome them, and especially the distin- 
guished gentleman who filled so conspicuous a place in 
the cabinet of President Cleveland, we regret that we 
are not able to welcome also his distinguished succes- 
sor and the President of the United States. 

Had their responsible duties permitted them to attend, 
I know that Massachusetts, with her greeting, would 
wish me to assure them that whatever measures they 
deem wise and necessary to sustain our flag and to up- 
hold our national honor will receive the undivided and 
earnest support of this patriotic old Commonwealth. ^ 

1 The reference is to complicatious then pending with Chili, which 
threatened war. 



BOSTON CHAMBER OF COxMMERCE. 49 

It is a great pleasure to-night to express to you, how- 
ever informally, the deep interest of the Commonwealth 
in your work, which so earnestly and efficiently is 
promoting her trade and her commerce. In this you 
represent one of her greatest and earliest industries. 

In the early years of this century, when our commerce 
was nearly annihilated by the utter disregard of neutral 
rights by the great belligerent Powers of Europe, and 
by the passage of defensive embargo and non-intercourse 
Acts at home, your predecessors felicitously declared 
that the best and most productive farms in New England 
were upon the seas, and, most justly, they claimed of 
their government the defence of these freeholds. 

What was true then is equally true now. Commerce 
now as then is the most legitimate and natural business 
of a large part of New England. Her situation, the 
genius, education, and enterprise of her people, naturally 
adapt her to this pursuit. She has a just claim upon 
the government, not for special favors, but that she 
should be left free to follow this pursuit, and to reap its 
benefits unfettered by restrictive laws. 

Our National Constitution gave her unrestricted com- 
merce with the whole sisterhood of States. It also 
forbade preference, by any regulation of commerce or 
revenue, to the ports of one State over another. In the 
spirit of these provisions, which made interstate com- 
merce free from ocean to ocean, and foreign commerce 
forever exempt from any local privileges, New England 
asks only for laws which shall be equal and just to all 
sections of our common country, and which, if equal 
and just, cannot but lift some of the burdens now upon 
her, and so increase her industries, her trade, and her 
commerce. 

Commerce and manufactures have ever been allied in 
mutual support. If at times there has seemed to be 

4 



50 BOSTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 

apparent diversity of interests between them, I firmly 
believe we are beginning to see that it is more apparent 
than real, and that they can and will go hand in hand 
together with mutual prosperity, commerce leading the 
way for manufactures to the markets of the world. 
The merchants of Salem, in 1820, in their celebrated 
memorial against restrictions on commerce, drafted by 
Judge Story, declared that commerce and manufac- 
tures both were vital to the welfare and prosperity of 
the Union, and that " It can never be a sound or safe 
policy to build up the one upon the ruins of the other ; " 
and they laid it down as a "rational doctrine that 
national wealth is best promoted upon principles of 
perfect reciprocity." We may differ as to the way, 
we may call it by different names, but all will agree 
that the purpose and the end are desirable, and mean 
greater prosperity both to commerce and manufactures, 
and so to the welfare of our country. It certainly will 
be most useful in these matters which affect so vitally 
the great interests of the country that, as far as practi- 
cable, all interests should act in harmony for a favorable 
result, however much they may differ as to the precise 
and best mode to reach it. 

I am sure that the merchants of Boston will give their 
earnest support to any action which, in their judgment, 
will promote the great interests of commerce, foreign 
and domestic, come such action from whom it may. 
But remembering the able speakers for whom you are 
anxiously waiting, I must no longer trespass upon your 
patience and your courtesy. I bid this distinguished 
gathering of merchants who have done so much for the 
welfare and honor of the Commonwealth godspeed in 
their efforts to advance her commerce and all her 
interests. 

Let me close by again extending the warmest welcome 



BOSTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 51 

of the Common weal til to all our guests, especially to the 
distinguished representatives from other States, who 
have come to join us in our rejoicing, to assure us of 
their fraternal interest, and to prove to us that nowhere 
in this broad land is the old Bay State forgotten. 
Welcome to our festivities, welcome to our Common- 
wealth ! May your visit be as pleasant and profitable 
to you as it surely is to us. 



ADDEESS 

TO THE HAEVAED ALUMNI, AT CAMBEIDGE, ON COM- 
MENCEMENT, JUNE 30, 1892. 

FOR the second time it is my privilege to bring to 
a great university the congratulations of a great 
State; to reciprocate in her name the cordial welcome 
which Harvard's sons ever give to her Alma Mater, our 
Commonwealth ; then to speak of the relation of the 
State to the College, now manifest less in law and gov- 
ernment than in their mutual assistance and dependence, 
which have loyally, lovingly intertwined their lives for 
more than two hundred and fifty years, each striving to 
benefit the people and to contribute to their strength, 
happiness, and prosperity. 

In extending these congratulations a year ago, I 
spoke of the close dependence of the College upon the 
State from the earliest days, when the common founders 
of both, recognizing higher education as one of the 
estates of the realm necessary for the building up of a 
nation, gave to us Harvard as a commonwealth of learn- 
ing to be a corner-stone of the greater Commonwealth 
which was to guide and govern an intelligent, liberty- 
loving. God-fearing people. Through many a genera- 
tion this close dependence was shown in gifts and 
statutes, in the exercise of State control, and even in the 
fundamental law of our Constitution, in those familiar, 
solemn phrases, where it declares that wisdom and 
knowledge diffused generally among the body of the 
people are necessary for the preservation of their rights 



HARVARD ALUMNI. 53 

and liberties. And so it enjoined upon the future "to 
cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and 
all seminaries of them, especially the university at 
Cambridge, public schools and grammar-schools in the 
towns." 

But as Harvard has grown strong and self-reliant, 
the obligation upon the State to foster the first-born of 
its learned institutions has not been the duty of nursing 
or of governing it, but rather of releasing it from the 
restrictions of executive and legislative control, that, 
under conditions of perfect freedom, in the full power 
of its manhood, it might render service to the Com- 
monwealth better and more useful, because only the 
fruit of its own resources. So the true connection of 
Harvard with the State is found no longer in a depend- 
ence which chafes and dwarfs, but in the higher, larger 
relation of a potent influence entering into the life of 
the State and of her people, and, in sympathy with their 
wishes, wants, and aspirations, leading towards the 
high ideals w^hich an enlightened commonwealth ever 
sets before a patriotic people. 

The Constitution places the university and semi- 
naries of literature and sciences at the head of our public 
schools and grammar-schools not so much because they 
are the final blossom and fruit of the schools as their 
essential outgrowth and necessity ; and such education, 
generally diffused, it declares vital to the preservation 
of our rights and liberties. The founders of our 
Commonwealth, the framers of our State and National 
Constitutions, the draftsmen of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and the many mighty minds who gave us our 
country, our independence, and our government, meant 
that education and the scholar should go forth among 
the people, and exercise a just and powerful influence 
on public affairs. They were guilty of no such folly 



54 HARVARD ALUMNI. 

as to make it the duty "of magistrates and legisla- 
tures to cherish the interests of literature and the 
sciences," and then to repudiate the legitimate and 
practical result of such action by sneering at the scholar 
who brings the light of education into the life of the 
body politic for the solution of its many and compli- 
cated problems. 

With this opportunity for great influence open to 
higher education and expected of it, there rests upon it 
a corresponding duty. With us it cannot remain the 
studious monk in his cell, or the recluse in his study, 
even though it discover new truths and develop great 
principles of science or of ethics. Its constitutional 
and its natural place with us is to be the pioneer and 
missionary, the "schoolmaster abroad," to educate 
and help a people. Religion, with all its vital and 
commanding forces, became effective only when through 
Christ it entered into the lives of men. " Go ye into 
all the world," is a command to education and its 
scholars no less than to religion and its missionaries. 
Education felt the inspiration of its true mission when 
it gathered the little knot of students behind the his- 
toric haystack in Williamstown, where it planned to 
carry the gospel of Christianity across continent and 
ocean back to the Old World, there to acomplish its 
great and glorious purpose. Education which teaches 
liberty in the songs of a Lowell, which marshals the 
conscience of a people with the eloquence of a Phillips, 
which fights for freedom and for country in the grand 
lives and heroic deaths which this hall commemorates, 
— this is education, not content to bound its work 
within the narrow and selfish limits of personal success, 
but which goes forth into the great fields of humanity 
and public service, and coming in touch with the life 
of a people, proves itself a fighting force for good. This 



HARVARD ALUMNI. 55 

is education taking its proper place and doing its 
perfect work. Where wrongs exist, it preaches the 
gospel of reform and discontent; where rights are to 
be defended, it fights with the courage of honest and 
enlightened conviction. Its mission must be service, 
not contemplation; and, like religion, it must take to 
its heart and its mind the weary and the heavy laden, 
and seek to give them rest. So it steps forth from the 
student's cloister into the lives and hearts of the people, 
and the college becomes a power in the commonwealth. 
So, in the language of our Constitution, " Wisdom and 
knowledge, as well as virtue, are diffused generally 
among the body of the people. " They feel the quick- 
ening touch, and, seeking not to be patronized but 
uplifted, follow with confidence where education with 
human sympathy leads the way. 

Under our glorious system of free institutions and 
popular sovereignty there are ever problems of govern- 
ment and politics, of industry and society, which require 
" campaigns of education " for their just and intelligent 
solution. It needs no word of mine to tell you what in 
such campaigns is the place and power of a university. 
Let not the scholar stand aloof from the people, content 
to help them only with the cold and rigid rules of 
reason and of logic, but rather let his life run out 
into tlie lives of others, and from the abundance given 
him, freely give to all about him. And as he gives 
he also receives, gathering, in his sympathetic touch 
with the people, knowledge not taught from books but 
from life, which gives him greater strength and power. 

I have ventured to speak of this broader, truer rela- 
tion of the college to the State, because I know I but 
repeat the lessons taught me by my Alma Mater, and 
give expression to the spirit which has marked her 
long and honorable life. To-day, by the example and 



56 HARVARD ALUMNI. 

precept of her authorities, by the manliness and vigor 
of her student life, — more vigorous and self-reliant 
because freed, as Harvard has been, from the restric- 
tions of unnecessary authority, — by the many ways in 
which her undergraduates and her graduates touch the 
life of the people. Harvard is fullilling the hopes of 
her pious founders, and meeting the constitutional 
duties enjoined upon her by an anxious, loving mother 
State. 

May the time never come when any Harvard man 
shall feel that the world is bounded by college walls, and 
that its whole life is within, or when he shall forget 
the greater world outside surging against the walls 
and asking the help and guidance of education to meet 
its wants and its aspirations. 



ADDKESS 

AT THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
OF THE SETTLEMENT OF WOBURN, MASS., AT WOBURN, 
SEPT. 27, 1892. 

AS this old town and city to-day joyfully, with praise 
and thanksgiving, celebrates the passing of another 
milestone in its long and honorable life, it certainly is 
most fitting that the mother State should come with 
her love and greeting to join in your festivities and to 
rejoice in your rejoicing. She recognizes that such 
celebrations are more than local in their significance, 
or temporary in their influence. Your history is her 
history, your strength and growth are part of her pros- 
perity. The celebration to-day recalls the past, — your 
past, her past. It takes us back to the days of our early 
beginning; to the settlement of our towns, and the 
founding of our Commonwealth. 

As we note the work and spirit of our early founders, 
their courage and perseverance, their devotion to reli- 
gion, education, and freedom, their resistance to unjust 
and oppressive laws ; as we see them in the midst of a 
wilderness creating a Commonwealth, planting cliurches, 
schools, and colleges, — we, the generation of to-day, 
reaping the fruit of their foresight and labor, from 
their example gather courage and inspiration to hand 
down to our posterity the Commonwealth they founded 
and loved, preserved, broadened, and strengthened by 
a like devotion and patriotism. So, in the contempla- 



58 ANNIVERSARY OF SETTLEMENT OF WOBURN. 

tion suggested bj these anniversaries come to the State 
a quickening of public spirit, renewed devotion to her 
institutions and consecration to her service. 

When Lewis and Clarlv, early in tlie century, made 
their celebrated exploration, they followed the great 
Father of Waters up to its fountain-iicad, and there 
reverently knelt and drank of its limpid stream. 
To-day, standing by the broad river of our prosperity, 
we trace its ever-widening current up to its fountain- 
head, and there we reverently kneel in grateful 
acknowledgment. 

Not unlike these explorers, the historians of New 
England trace its progress and prosperity, its liberties 
and glory, up to their original source, and find them in 
that primary unit of New England civilization and 
government, the town organization. That organization, 
if not original with us, at least found l)ere its full de- 
velopment and maturity. It grew out of the Churcli, 
and at first was limited by its control. But as the 
stream of our life ran on. ever arrowing and broad- 
ening as other influences flowed into it, tliere came 
greater freedom and toleration, and Massachusetts was 
emancipated from early restrictions and freed from 
early prejudices. To-day she stands before the world 
as broad as she is great, as just as she is patriotic, with 
love for all her children, and with no place in her 
motherly heart for any spirit of intolerance. 

Distinguished and prosperous as has been the pro- 
gress of your town and city, it is not widely different 
in its history from its many associates that make up the 
aggregate life and prosperity of our Commonwealth. 
Here first came the church in 1642; then followed 
the incorporation of the town ; then in its very infancy 
we find it making liberal grants for school and college. 
Hardlv a generation old, it showed its hatred of tvrannv 



ANNIVERSAEY OF SETTLEMENT OF WOBURN. 59 

by defiance of the royal governor, and afterwards by tak- 
ijig a hand in his capture and imprisonment. 

In all of the early wars with the Indians and French 
Woburn did her full duty. But though loyal to king 
and governor as long as they were just to her, she was 
more loyal to the liberty and rights of the people. In 
the great agitation preceding our Revolution, again she 
uttered her indignant protests against imjust taxation 
and tyranny. When agitation ripened into revolution, 
she sent her sons to fight at Lexington and on many 
a battlefield for liberty and independence. So, three 
generations later, when there came a glorious struggle 
again for liberty and for the preservation of the 
Union our fathers had welded together with labor and 
with love, again went forth the sons of Woburn, ready 
to suffer for freedom's sake, and to die for love of 
country. 

So, too, in her later life is found constant evidence 
of the enterprise, patriotism, and public spirit of her 
citizens. It is seen in the great industries which have 
brought fame and prosperity to the town, in its many 
public improvements, and in the watchful care of the 
attractions which Nature with lavish hand has given 
you, and which make Woburn a pleasant place in which 
to dwell. It is strikingly shown in your magnificent 
public library, which, as it educates and Ti{)lifts the 
people, tells of the generosity and public spirit of a son 
of Woburn. 

All these things, so creditable and honorable in your 
history, are also typical of the life of our Conmion- 
wealth. As you early planted the church and school, 
and organized tlie town-meeting, so she throughout her 
life has ever been devoted to religion, education, and 
self-government ; and from these have sprung an in- 
telligent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people. 



60 ANNIVERSARY OF SETTLEMENT OF WOBURN. 

As here there have been resistance to tyranny, struggle 
for independence, and suffering and sacrifice for union 
and liberty, so too has Massachusetts, marshalling 
these forces out of all her towns, stepped forth to lead 
in every great agitation for the rights of a people, the 
maintenance of their institutions, and the preservation 
of their country. With vigor and fidelity she watches 
over the interests of her citizens ; with a strong arm 
she guards their rights ; with a loving heart she relieves 
their suffering; with wise and progressive legislation she 
seeks to lessen the toil of labor, and to benefit and uplift 
the masses of her people. 

The power, prosperity, and progress of the Common- 
wealth rest upon her cities and her towns. In them she 
lives and moves and has her being. May the time not 
come when anything is done to destroy their autonomy, 
infringe their rights, or impair that system which was 
the foundation of the Commonwealth, has been for two 
hundred and fifty years the bulwark of our liberties, and 
is to-day gratefully recognized as the source of our inde- 
pendence, prosperity, and happiness. 



SPEECH 

AT THE OPEXIXG OF THE EXHIBITIOX OF THE CHAEI- 
TABLE MECHANICS ASSOCIATION, OCT. 6, 1892. 



I 



GLADLY answer your cordial welcome to the Com- 
monwealth by extending her congratulations to this 
society, and her best wishes for the success of this its 
Exhibition, which is evidence of its continued prosperity 
and industry, and not less its public spirit. 

I am glad, too, as a member of this society, greatly 
honored by election to it, to express my personal interest 
in its work and exhibition. 

I have been thinking to-day, as perhaps have many 
of you, of the origin of our Association. I have pictured 
in my mind that sturdy band of mechanics, " more in 
number than the stars of heaven," so Paul Revere de- 
clared, who gathered with him at the old Green Dragon 
Tavern, and there conceived and founded the society. 
I have admired again their public spirit and broad philan- 
thropy, which determined them to put their society 
closely in touch with the life of the people, and to aid 
them by gentle charity and useful public service, as well 
as in their material interests and industries. So they 
declared its purpose to be to relieve distress, to help the 
cause of education, as well as to promote useful inven- 
tions and industries, and to take part in all matters of 
public importance. How strange it seems to us now 
that for the first ten years of its life the Legislature 
refused to give it a charter, because, as the record 



62 CHARITABLE MECHANICS ASSOCIATION. 

shows, of " an apjjreliensioii that it was a combniation 
to extort extravagant prices for labor " ! Had the 
timid conservatism of that day prevailed, there would 
have been lost to Massachusetts one of her great institu- 
tions, and to. her people the blessings that have followed 
from its success. 

I have thought that if its founders could come back 
and look over its long and useful life of nearly one 
hundred years, they would rejoice to see how true it 
had been to the spirit and purposes of its founders. 
They would find that it had been quick and generous 
to relieve poverty and distress ; that it had been useful 
and true to the cause of education ; that it had done 
much to promote industries and inventions, — especially 
by these great exhibitions, which advance the cause of 
industry, give instruction and pleasure to a whole com- 
munity, and mark the growth and development of our 
material prosperity. By such exhibitions could almost 
be written the industrial history of our Commonwealth 
and our country. 

They would find, too, that on many a public occasion 
this Association had borne a conspicuous part, and had 
rendered useful aid to many a public undertaking. Of 
the many instances, let me recall one which the Com- 
monwealth will ever remember with gratitude. 

When the monument on yonder Bunker Hill paused 
in its upward movement, and the work seemed destined 
to fail, this Association remembered and put into action 
the eloquent words of Webster, spoken at the laying of 
its corner-stone : " Let it rise to meet the sun in its 
coming, let the earliest light of day gild it, and let 
parting day linger and play upon it." It felt at once 
the touch of a vigorous hand, and rose in its majesty 
to completion, ever to remind us of the independence 
and glory of our country. So, too, it will remind us 



CHARITABLE MECHANICS ASSOCIATION. 63 

of the public spirit and the public services of this 
Association. 

Gladly I bring to you to-day the gratitude of our 
Commonwealth, and her earnest wish that this Exhi- 
bition, now open in all its completeness and for all its 
great purposes, may meet with the success its merits 
richly deserve. 



SPEECH 

AT THE DINNER OF THE IRISH CHARITABLE SOCIETY 
IN BOSTON, MARCH 19, 1893. 

FOR the third time it is my privilege to come to this 
Society with the greeting of the Commonwealth, 
mingled with her congratulations upon its long, useful, 
and honorable life, and for a third time to note in your 
welcome and in your loyal toast the love you bear to 
this grand old State, of which we all are justly proud. 

I like the language of your toast to the Common- 
wealth. It speaks not of her wealth, her population, or 
her size ; nor of her trade, her industries, or her pros- 
perity. It passes by these material things, great as 
they are, and notes as the potent fact of her life that 
from her sprang American liberty ; that, loyal in her 
devotion to human rights, with sympathy and help she 
has been the friend always and everywhere of the needy 
and oppressed, — and so she has left her impress on the 
Nation, and so in pride and love we pledge to her our 
devotion and our service. 

I do not need in this presence to recall the facts of 
her history, which justify the sentiment so well expressed 
in the toast. Every school-child is familiar with them, 
and knows that throughout her whole life the love of 
liberty has prevailed, and made her citizens, not only 
self-reliant and self-governing, but earnest in their 
sympathy with any people who enter on the path which 
we have trodden, and have found to lead to prosperity 
and liappiness. 



IRISH CHARITABLE SOCIETY. 65 

So, to-night, as ties of blood and kinship carry the 
thoughts of manv across the water to the Green Isle 
beyond, and your hopes and prayers go forth that suc- 
cess at last may reward a struggle of seven hundred 
years, I think I express the sentiment of Massachusetts, 
in accord with her history and traditions, in declaring 
her sympathy with this cause, and her godspeed to the 
great statesman who, determined to undo the wrongs of 
the past with a measure of justice, seeks to give to a 
liberty-loving people the inestimable blessing of the 
right to govern themselves. 

I am glad to-night to speak a word about Home Rule 
from a New England standpoint. This principle is 
thoroughly wrought into every fibre of our Common- 
wealth. When Governor Winthrop brought here from 
the shores of England the charter of his company. 
Home Rule had its inception. When from that com- 
mercial charter he and his associates developed a sys- 
tem of government, carrying out the fundamental 
principles of the " Mayflower " compact. Home Rule re- 
ceived a mighty impetus. From that day to this it has 
been the fundamental policy of our colony and State. 
It originated, shaped, and guided all the controversies 
with the colonial governors. It overthrew Andros. It 
was felt in every law and influence while Massachusetts, 
like Ireland to-day, was a constituent part of the British 
Empire, and until its denial by that government resulted 
in the independence of the colonies. The beginning 
and the end of the whole Revolutionarv struffule was 
Home Rule ; and the successful development of our 
National and State life since has been in following its 
guidance. 

As in this, the greatest and best of the old Puritan 
Commonwealths, we, though of different blood, race, 
and religion, have lived happily and prospered together 

5 



6Q IRISH CHARITABLE SOCIETY. 

under this principle of Home Rule, with a common 
experience and hopes and purposes, with a union of 
thought and action, with equal devotion to our Com- 
monwealth and country, and all their great institutions, 
and an equal willingness to struggle and suffer in their 
behalf, — so it is natural and fitting that we should 
stand together in our sympathy with the oppressed in 
other lands, and in our hope that to them as to us there 
may come liberty and self-government. 

What better answer, too, than our own experience 
to the evil forebodings of those who fear that self-gov- 
ernment cannot safely be given to a people because of 
differences of religion or of race ? Early in our history 
there followed in the footsteps of our founders men of 
another nationality and of another religious faith. They 
came to a Puritan State ; they brought with them their 
religion. Generouslv thev were welcomed to our shores, 
and gladly, ever in increasing numbers, they cast in their 
lot with us. If they did not forget their native land 
and its green flag, yet ever above the green have they 
proudly carried the Star-Spangled Banner of our coun- 
try and the Home Rule flag of our State. If in their 
minds there linger the sweet notes of Erin's harp, yet 
have they never failed to " keep step to the music of 
the Union " from the days of Montgomery and through 
the Revolution, to the time when Shields, Kilpatrick, 
and their many associates led their Irish ranks into the 
thickest of the fight for libertv and the Stars and 
Stripes. 

Constantly in our American citizenship there has 
been this intermingling of nationalities and of religions, 
and of the new with the old. The descendants of the 
original emigrants to Plymouth, Salem, and Boston, 
and the descendants of the later emigrants, have be- 
come an integral portion of our Commonwealth, sharing 



IRISH CHARITABLE SOCIETY. 67 

in its government, and helping to mould its measures and 
its influences. And what has been the result? 

A prosperous Commonwealth of a united, loyal, happy- 
people, grounded in the principles of liberty, equality, 
and Home Rule. We hail her as the mother State who 
gives to all her protection, and gets from all, without 
exaction, obedience and love. 



INTRODUCTOKY REMARKS 

AS PKESIDING OFFICER AT THE DINNER GIVEN TO HON. 
P. A. COLLINS, IN BOSTON, APRIL 4, 1893, UPON HIS DE- 
PARTURE AS CONSUD-GENERAL TO LONDON. 

WITH pleasure 1 ask you now to turn from this 
generous table to the better thhigs which others 
have prepared for you, — from feasting to the kindly 
play of sentiment that will give expression to the one 
thought, the one feeling, and the one name which bring 
us together in sympathy and friendship to pay our trib- 
ute of respect and honor to our distinguished guest. 

What need, however, to give expression to your 
thought ? Tlie character, the number, the enthusiasm 
of this gathering better than spoken phrase utter their 
" Well done " to a life well lived, and express their con- 
gratulation and their confidence as that life goes forth 
into fields of greater usefulness. 

Massachusetts has a ymv of commending honorable 
service and faithful citizenship in the presence and the 
lifetime of those whom thus she delights to honor. She 
waits not till death to set her stamp of approval upon a 
useful, honorable life, but, speaking through a repre- 
sentative company like this, she with her word of praise 
gives for the past the reward well earned, and for the 
future " the spur to brave and honest deeds." 

But a few nights ago there gathered here distin- 
guished citizens, who, disregarding all political differ- 
ences, gladly joined in woi'ds of just praise to one who 



DINNER TO HON. P. A. COLLINS. 69 

had o-iven Ions: and honorable service to his State and 
to his country. With fidelity and ability, with patriot- 
ism and an unblemished character, he had discharged 
the duties of high public position ; and with the respect, 
the confidence, and the love of his fellow-citizens he 
sought the rest and peace he had richly earned. To 
him this commendation was the triumphant ending of 
his public life, the gentle comforter to bear him up in 
his declining years.^ 

To-niglit, in the same generous spirit and on the same 
broad ground, we meet bearing our commendation and 
congratulation to one in the full vigor of his activity 
and in the very prime of his usefulness. Our meeting 
is but the closing of a chapter in his life, marking its 
past with our " Well done," and its unwritten future 
with our " God speed." Into that life I have no wish 
nor need now to enter, — no wish, because the ties of 
closest friendship and esteem could not withhold the 
words of praise which would offend his modesty ; no 
need, because his life lias spoken for itself. It is 
stamped upon the community, and its influence felt in 
State and Nation. It has gallantly led in many a con- 
test for principle and the right, manfully accepting 
defeat, and wisely using victory. It has fully met the 
grave responsibilities of high official position. Faith- 
fully it has served the people, with loyalty and devotion 
upholding the principles and the institutions of our 
great Republic. And in and tlirough that life there have 
ever been a keen sense of justice and of honor, the 
broad spirit of toleration and the recognition of the 
gentle charities which bring sunshine into the lives of 
others. 

No wonder, General Collins, that to many of us you 
have been a trusted leader, a wise counsellor, and a true 

1 The reference is to Senator Dawes. 



70 DINNER TO HON. P. A. COLLINS. 

friend. In achieving this success out of poverty and 
struggle, in winning an honorable ])lace in the esteem 
and hearts of this community, you have illustrated the 
truths tliat the essence of our democracy is " the su- 
premacy of man over his accidents," and that " each 
man makes his own stature, builds himself." 

May I say, then, to you, it is in recognition of your 
worth, your character and ability, your self-made suc- 
cess, and to give expression to our belief that you will 
with distinction discharge the duties of the high post 
to wdiich you have been called, that we, your friends 
and fellow-citizens, bring to you our heartiest congrat- 
ulations and good wishes ? 

But this company needs no words of mine to express 
its sentiment. It wishes to do that itself, and will not 
permit me longer to stand between you and its greet- 
ing. " Sir, you are very welcome to our house. It must 
appear in other ways than words; therefore I scant this 
breathing courtesy." Gentlemen, a health to General 
Collins: success, long life to him! As, crowned with 
honors and high station, he goes back across the water 
to represent the country of his choice, he carries with 
him our confidence and our best wishes. If the parting 
touches a little his heart-strings, may he remember tliat 
the farewell is ever behind, but the welcome ever before. 



SPEECH 

AT THE DINNER OF THE BRITISH CHARITABLE SOCIETY, 
IN BOSTON, MAY 24, 1893. 

IT is always a pleasant duty to represent the Common- 
wealth at these gatherings of her citizens, bringing 
to them her congratulations, and receiving the cordial 
welcome which your loyalty to her suggests. 

This is the third Charitable Society whose anniver- 
sary I have this year attended, — the Scots', Irish, and 
British, — all founded in the sweet name of Charity, and 
through the generations of their lives doing her blessed 
work. All, too, recall the fact that their members, 
while loyal in their devotion to the country of their 
choice and adoption, clierish the remembrance of a land 
across the water to which their thoughts lovino:lv turn, 
just as in mature age one remembers the homestead of 
childhood. What Bonnie Scotland is to one, and the 
Green Isle to another, to you is Old England with her 
long life of great men and great things. With her we 
claim a common heritage; from her have we sprung; 
and out of her Isles have we received much that is great 
in onr laws, literature, and institutions. As, to-day, 
arbitration takes the place of war, as we gather here in 
peaceful array the great navies of the world, — and, may 
I add, as England, following in our footsteps, grows more 
and more democratic in recognition of the people's 
power and the right of local self-government, — I can- 
not help feeling that the peoples at least who speak our 



72 BRITISH CHARITABLE SOCIETY. 

language are drawing nearer together ; and that the time 
inny not be far distant when the prediction of a great 
English writer of to-day will be verified, that the English- 
speaking race will dominate the civilized world, and 
that the seat of their power will be upon the banivs of the 
Hudson and the Mississippi. Your Society and its kin- 
dred Societies, with their love of other lands, but greater 
love for this, seem to be one of the influences to hasten 
this happy consummation. 

One other thought this meeting to-night suggests. 
Our country is now celebrating a great anniversary, — 
that of the discovery of a continent, which was the first 
and necessary step for the foundation of a great republic 
that should lift the people up to the conception and 
assertion of their rights. To-day, in honor of this the 
greatest achievement of the last four centuries, the 
nations bring hither the evidence of their growth and 
prosperity, and compare it with our own. It has well 
been said that our grandest exhibit to the world is a 
happy people governing themselves. The greatest 
factor in that work is the individual citizen, for whose 
education and development have been founded our 
institutions, and upon whom rests the stability of our 
government. For the development of an American 
republic, sustained and perfected by an American citi- 
zenship, all nations have made their contributions. As 
their people liave poured in upon us, they have brought 
with them, of course, their religion and language, their 
national ti'aits, and often tender memories of their old 
homes and countries. But with tliese conditions, here 
in a land of liberty all joined to make a new country, a 
new citizenship, and a new government of popular rights. 
Coming here with jiure purposes, to labor and to live 
with us, to enjoy and adopt our institutions, they are 
made welcome to our shores. We do not expect them 



BRITISH CHARITABLE SOCIETY. 73 

to forget the sweet memories of their mother lands, nor 
to cease to cherisli all that is great and good in them. 
We do expect that they will become merged in our 
greater, broader American citizenship, prize its privi- 
leges, and liold its institutions and its flag nearest and 
dearest to their hearts. 

Gentlemen, I extend to you, and through you to the 
gracious sovereign whose seventy -fourth birthday you 
celebrate, the congratulations of a great Commonwealth, 
which, resting upon such broad and loyal citizenship, 
stands pre-eminent in her devotion to liberty, humanity, 
our countrv and its institutions. 



mTRODUCTOKY REMARKS 

AS PRESIDING OFFICER AT THE DINNER GIVEN BY THE 
MASSACHUSETTS DELEGATION TO THE OFFICIALS OF 
THE WORLD'S FAIR, IN CHICAGO, JUNE 15, 1893. 

IT is now my pleasant privilege to call you from the 
delights of the table to the intellectual feast which 
will be given by those who follow me, and to the flow of 
soul which marks the spirit of our gathering and binds 
us together, hosts and guests, State and State, in comity 
and friendship. 

My part to-night is a very pleasant, yet a very simple 
one, — 1 speak but the prologue to the entertainment, 
with words of welcome. Then it is my duty to ring up 
the curtain, and present to you these sages and wits, 
these men of affairs and deeds, who, each in his Avay, 
has rendered distinguished public service. 

I need not, as in the prologue, ask for them your kind 
attention. You could not fail to give it if you would. 
Nor need I ask of you for them a cordial welcome. 
Massachusetts and her citizens ever gladly extend her 
greeting and her hospitality to the stranger within her 
gates. And when she lifts her latch-string, not to wel- 
come the stranger in, but to wander a little from her 
own hearthstone, she carries with her, I believe, the 
same generous spirit and warm heart, the same broad 
sympathies and belief in a common brotherhood, which, 
making her at home a beloved mother to loyal children, 
make her, I trust, wherever she may be, a generous 
friend and a gracious hostess, who is glad and proud to 
extend her welcome to all who gather in her name. 



DINNER TO OFFICIALS OF WORLD'S FAIR. 75 

In this spirit, to-night, I speak for her, giving to you 
her citizens, and to you lier guests, her right hand of 
fellowship and friendship. 

To-night one other thought is uppermost in our 
minds. We have come here officially to represent a 
great Commonwealth ; to express her deep interest and 
unbounded pride in this grand exposition, which, draw- 
ing hither the products and peoples of the world, is 
itself the greatest national contribution to the world's 
entertainment, education, and civilization ; and then, in 
behalf of our Commonwealth, to extend, with a deep 
sense of gratitude and obligation, her heartiest congrat- 
ulation to the authorities and officials, whose work, 
ability, and persistent zeal have been crowned with a 
superb triumph. 

We recognize the broad spirit in which they have 
planned and labored, the difficulties and obstacles which 
with indomitable will they have overcome ; the generous 
public spirit, municipal, state, and national, which they 
have aroused as a power to assure success ; and the 
skill, ability, and ingenuity out of which has been 
wrought this national masterpiece. 

Massachusetts is proud to have contributed something 
of her talent, ability, and means to the development and 
progress of this work. With full appreciation that it, 
as broadly planned and carefully perfected, is the pro- 
duct of the united labor of all, and yet with a proud 
sense of part proprietorship, she rejoices in its complete 
success, and gladly pays her tribute of honor and 
respect to those upon whom have rested the labor and 
responsibility. 

But, gentlemen, I fear your indulgence and patience 
may tempt me to wander from my prologue to the more 
substantial intellectual entertainment which I was but 
to introduce ; and so I ring the bell and raise the curtain, 
and usher in the entertainment. 



ADDRESS 

AT THE BANQUET GIVEN BY THE MASSACHUSETTS 
SOCIETY OF CHICAGO TO THE MASSACHUSETTS 
DELEGATION TO THE WORLD'S FAIR, AT CHICAGO, 
JUNE 17, 1893. 

IT is always a pleasure to receive the welcome of 
Massachusetts' sons, whether within or without her 
limits. It is always a privilege to answer that welcome 
by extending to them her greeting and her blessing. 

To-night we meet far away from home to accept the 
hospitality of her sons ; and, with her name upon our 
lips, and her glorious life in every mind, we greet her 
with the love and loyalty which neither time nor dis- 
tance can affect. 

Many a time it has been my privilege to speak for 
her at home at her own fireside. There, where her 
authority is ever unquestioned, her gentle, uplifting 
power ever felt, her daily life marked by beneficent 
laws and helpful deeds, we, her sons, think and speak of 
her as a constant guiding influence, protecting us with 
lier might, and enriching us with manifold blessings. 

Perhaps at times we who have something to do witli 
her laws and the exercise of her authority see a little 
of the sterner side of her life. We may think of her 
then as a controlling power, binding iis about with 
numerous restrictions and limitations, exacting from 
us contributions, interfering with personal liberty, and 
demanding obedience to her sovereiuin will. If she 



BANQUET TO THE WORLD'S FAIR DELEGATION. 77 

seems to us then a taskmaster, ever with the commands 
upon her lips, " Thou shalt," and " Thou shalt not," 
she really is but the lawgiver, — upright, just, and 
beneficent. 

But, after all, this is only a small part of her life. To 
us who gather about her hearthstone she is far less of 
a governing power than a guiding influence. We think 
of her long life of great men and great deeds ; of the 
glorious work she has done in the fields of education, 
religion, and charity ; of her public spirit and patriot- 
ism, and her sacrifices for independence, liberty, and 
union ; of her contributions to science and letters ; of 
her leadersliip in every great agitation for personal 
liberty and human rights ; of the valor she has shown 
in every war and upon every battle-field ; of the many 
sons she lias sent forth to die for love of country. Then 
to us she is less a sovereign power of unbending will than 
" a mother State," guiding the destiny of loving children 
who are bound to her, not by her strong right arm, 
but by her heart and soul. 

This is Massachusetts at home in tbe midst of her 
contented, prosperous, happy family. But to-night in 
this great city, whose energy and generosity have gath- 
ered here the States of the Union and the nations of 
the world in friendly competition for the entertainment 
and instruction of all, we cannot content ourselves 
with a home-view of any subject ; but, broadened by 
our surroundings, of necessity there enters into our 
conception even of a mother State a sense of compari- 
son and proportion, and of her place and influence in 
the greater, grander whole. I speak to-night, tiierefore, 
of Massachusetts, not as she is to us, her children, but 
as she stands before the country and world for what she 
has done for humanity and the building up of a great 
Republic. 



78 BANQUET TO THE AYORLD'S FAIR DELEGATION. 

Grand as this Exposition is, almost beyond the power 
of words to describe ; successful as it is in its architec- 
ture and its beauty, and perfect in every detail ; proud of 
it as we are, as the greatest national masterpiece yet con- 
tributed for the instruction and entertainment of the civ- 
ilized world, — I have felt that in this, our anniversary 
celebration, there was a greater thing we had to show to 
every nation : a powerful, contented people, in the pro- 
cess of building up an indestructible Republic founded on 
the principles of liberty, equality, and self-government. 
Into this work have entered the contributions of all 
countries, creating and developing an American citizen- 
ship as the basis of a great Republic of personal liberty 
and constitutional government. 

It was an Italian under Portuguese instruction, and in 
a Spanish vessel, who discovered our continent. During 
the next two centuries English, French, and Spanish vied 
with each other in their further discoveries and achieve- 
ments here. Note a few of the early settlements, 
and see out of what varied material was to come our 
citizenship and our Republic. Puritan settlers in New 
England, Cavaliers in Virginia ; the Dutch on the banks 
of tiie Hudson, and the Swedes on the banks of the 
Delaware ; Quakers in Pennsylvania, Catholics in Mary- 
land, the Huguenots in South Carolina, Spanish and 
French in Florida and Louisiana, — but all coming to a 
land of liberty, to breathe the pure air of free institu- 
tions, and to be moulded into a new type of American 
citizenship. 

Massachusetts stands before the country and the 
world to be judged by the part she has taken in this 
great work for liberty and mankind. What has been 
her contribution ? How much has she added to the 
strength and glory of our common country ? What has 
she done for independence and liberty ? I do not need 



BANQUET TO THE WORLD'S FAIR DELEGATION. 79 

to-niglit, in the presence of her citizens, to do more than 
touch upon a few things that marlv a long and honorable 
life, which has been a potent influence in the creation 
of our Constitution and a priceless contribution to the 
progress of our country. First, she has given to the 
country the sturdiness of character, the courage, and 
the piety which distinguished her Puritan founders. 
That was tlie fibre which was to be wrought into the 
fabric of our Republic to make it great and permanent. 
Note their wisdom and foresight, and see how much we 
owe to them. They seemed to foresee the full result 
of their work, and to know that out of it was to come 
a great Nation of intelligent, liberty-loving, and God- 
fearing people. So in education, religion, and self-gov- 
ernment they laid its foundation deep and strong. In 
the midst of the wilderness they established the pub- 
lic-school system, set up the printing-press, printed the 
Bible, and, out of their poverty, founded a great univer- 
sity. And this, the work of their day, has come down 
through the generations and spread throughout the land. 

The courage, patriotism, and public spirit of her 
founders have ever been present and potent in the life 
of Massachusetts, making her foremost in every great 
agitation for freedom and humanity. Four generations 
after her founding she was uttering in town-meetings 
her formal protests against the tyranny of the mother 
country, and, under Adams and Hancock, arousing the 
conscience of her people to assert their rights and 
declare their independence. 

So, too, a short century after, when there came again 
a struggle for liberty, Massachusetts, foremost in the 
great agitation which was to wipe out the curse of hu- 
man slavery, is again ready to do battle for the principles 
which have distinguished her glorious life. 

I have touched upon the heroic, martial side of the 



80 BANQUET TO THE WORLD'S FAIR DELEGATION 

life of Massachusetts. No one questions its value as a 
powerful factor in achieving our independence, estah- 
lisliing liberty, and making our Republic a permanent 
and indestructible Union. Had I the time, I should love 
to follow her life as it has been seen and felt in other 
fields of usefulness ; show her prominence in every 
religious movement for greater freedom of conscience 
and liberty of thought ; her leadershij) in education, 
establishing schools, colleges, and libraries, freely giv- 
ing her citizens advantages unequalled by any state or 
nation in the world. Then 1 would i)oint out how 
much she has done by wise laws and popular agitation 
to advance the interests of labor and to benefit the 
great masses of her people ; and then her grand work 
through noble men and women in the manifold charities; 
and last, but not least, how she has sent forth her sons 
to every portion of our country, taking with them her 
principles and teaching, to build up by their courage 
and enterprise everywhere centres of activity which 
should stamp her ideas and inlluence deep into our 
national life. 

But here in Chicago, in the midst of this great World's 
Exposition and competition, Massachusetts speaks for 
herself more forcibly than by any words of mine. She 
has built here a home characteristic of her life. Its 
name and history tell of her patriotism and statesman- 
ship. Let the stranger who would know what she has 
done for the world enter its door and gaze upon its 
walls. He will find there little of *)stentation, little to 
remind him of her wealth, industries, prosperity, her 
material life ; but as he looks upon the pictures hang- 
ing there, he will hear her speaking to him through 
generations of great men who have moulded the litera- 
ture, the laws and institutions of our country. Massa- 
chusetts speaks there to the world through Lowell and 



BANQUET TO THE WORLD'S FAIR DELEGATION. 81 

Longfellow, Whittier and Boyle O'Reilly, Holmes and 
Lucy Larcom, whose poetry has become household words, 
and who, singing the songs of liberty, have carried edu- 
cation out into the life of the people to do its great and 
perfect work. Hawthorne and Emerson, Thoreau, Hig- 
ginson, and Louisa Alcott, will remind him how much 
our country, through Massachusetts, has done in the 
field of letters ; while Motley and Prescott, Parkmau 
and Bancroft, testify to her prominence in the field of 
history ; Pierce, Agassiz, Bowditch, Maria Mitchell, and 
Hitchcock remind us of her triumphs in science ; Par- 
sons and Story, Curtis and Shaw, of her leadership iai 
law; Edwards and Channing, Parker and Clarke, Brooks 
and Peabody, are men who have led great theological 
movements, whose influence has been felt tliroughout 
the land, Horace Mann, a host in himself, represents 
and personifies more than any American, free education, 
its growth and development. 

Then, if we turn to another phase of her life, and 
ask what public service Massachusetts has rendered, 
what a full and glorious answer comes from the walls 
of our Hancock building, with its long line of orators 
and reformers, statesmen and soldiers. There are found 
the men and women who liave led the' great movements 
for the uplifting of a people, — Garrison and Phillips, 
Mann, Sumner, and Parker, — all foremost and of com- 
manding influence in great causes ; Julia Ward Howe, 
whose " Battle Hymn " has become the martial music 
of the Republic ; Everett and Choate, whose classic ora- 
tory charmed the Nation, and*Webster, whose unrivalled 
intellect laid the constitutional basis of permanent free- 
dom when through agitation and war came union and 
liberty ; Winthrop, Hancock, Adams, Otis, and Andrew 
suggest the influence and power which Massachusetts, 
through many great names and patriotic lives, has 

6 



82 BANQUET TO THE WORLD'S FAIR DELEGATION. 

wielded in the field of statesmanship ; Sumner and 
Hooker, Shaw and Bartlett, Devens and Miles, — names 
fresh in the minds of the present generation, — recall 
how willingly Massachusetts men, when agitation ri- 
pened into action, answered their country's summons, 
and gave themselves to her on the field of battle ; while 
Dorothea Dix, Howe, and Peabody, with scores of noble 
men and women, will speak forever of Massachusetts' 
work for charity, humanity, and philanthropy. 

These are a few of the faces which speak to us from 
the walls of our State building. The list is almost end- 
less. As I read in their lives of the power and gran- 
deur of the Commonwealth, and of their influence not 
only on their day and generation but upon the genera- 
tions yet unborn, I recall a thought expressed by Phillips 
in his plea for the preservation of the Old South Meet- 
ing-house. True, he said, its form is plain, it is 
not sightly to the eye ; but when the soldiers of Massa- 
chusetts went forth in 1861 to fight for freedom and 
their country, as they passed the homely old building 
there was something within its walls which spoke to 
them, and reverently they lifted their caps and passed 
on, braver, truer men. It was the voice of the fathers 
and the soul of the Commonwealth which spoke, recall- 
ing the grandeur of tlie past, and inspiring them to 
meet nobly the duties set before them. 

So Massachusetts here, not to her sons only but to 
the world, is speaking through these lives, which have 
blessed mankind ; and the world is better and nobler 
because of her work and Ifer message. 

A health, then, to the grand old Commonwealth ! 
God save her and bless her, and keep us true to her 
teaching, steadfast in her service, and constant in our 
love and lovaltv ! 



SPEECH 

AT THE ANNUA]. DINNER OF THE HARVARD ALUMNI 
AT CAMBRIDGE, COMMENCEMENT DAY, JUNE 28, 1893. 

T^/ITH picturesque ceremony, and in accordance with 
an old and worthy custom, the University and 
Commonwealth meet to-day to interchange their greet- 
ings. With a deep sense of personal obligation to both, 
I welcome the privilege of being the messenger wlio 
brings to Alma Mater, with the love of a devoted son, 
the blessing of her mother State. Hajid in hand, in 
mutual support and confidence, these twain have walked 
together from the early days of common poverty and 
suffering till the present full development of their pros- 
perity and power. 

If the growing strength of the University has made 
lier less dependent upon tlie protecting arm of the 
Commonwealth, it has also made more clear and potent 
their closer union of heart and thought and action. I 
Avill not to-dav wearv vou with the familiar storv of 
their dependent and interwoven lives, both so full of 
great men and worthy deeds. But upon this last occa- 
sion when I may express to you the thought and senti- 
ment of a great people, permit me to speak of the future 
rather than the past, — not of what Harvard and univer- 
sity education have done, but a little of their opportunity 
and power in our advancing civilization and prosperity. 

I know it is a pleasant fancy but a common error to 
believe that we are always entering upon a new era of 



8-4 HARVARD ALUMNI. 

human progress and development. Like Lowell's " Spirit 
of the Age," our constant New Era may be but a delu- 
sion, impressing us only with its imposing capitals. 
Yet, in spite of this warning of authority and experience, 
I venture the belief that we are in the midst of great 
social, economic, and political movements, which will 
distinguish our age by their blessings, and in which edu- 
cation and the university are essential elements, and 
may be, if they will, sustaining and decisive influences. 

The battle of political freedom is over ; its results are 
substantially accomplished ; its benefits are permanent. 
Li every English-speaking nation and almost through- 
out the civilized world the people are recognized as the 
source of all political power, with a right to self-govern- 
ment and personal liberty. Here, at least, their power 
and their rights remain unquestioned. No open foe is 
in the field. This hall commemorates the last struggle 
in that great movement ; and as it speaks of Harvard's 
fidelity and leadership, it reminds us that at every step 
of freedom's progress her influence has been felt in her 
example, her teaching, and the lives of her patriotic 
sons. I do not mean, however, to dwell upon the part 
which Harvard and her sister colleges have taken in this 
glorious past. I am looking forward, not backward, 
with the purpose to forecast, if I may, in some measure 
the impending struggle, and the duty and the place of 
hiaher education in it. 

We have placed the people on the throne. By inhe- 
rent right and univei'sal assent, they are the sovereign 
power beyond all question, or the need of any further act 
of settlement. We gratefully recognize this truth, and 
rejoice in established democracy. 

We know that out of its supremacy, and perhaps its 
struggles with the forces of selfish interests, have come 
social and political problems of world-wide interest. 



HARVARD ALUxMNI. 85 

The conflict, if such it be, is not for political freedom or 
religious toleration, but rather for the advancement of 
the people with greater equality of law ; for adjustment 
of the laws of taxation and property, with more just and 
beneficent distribution ; and for the uplifting of the 
masses, with further recognition of the rights of labor 
and of its share in the creation of a common prosperity. 
These are the pressing questions which are everywhere 
taking possession of the popular mind and entering our 
political life. They demand for their just and wise sol- 
ution the light which education can throw upon them. 

The past has made the people sovereign. The present 
must fit them to meet their great responsibilities and 
duties, that their reign may continue to be of law and 
justice, peace and progress. 

Here, then, is a broad field for university work ; here 
are its opportunity and duty. Let it not limit its influ- 
ence to the seclusion of the scholar's cloister, but reacli 
out with its uplifting power into the great world beyond 
our college walls. Let it not waste its energy in vain 
misgivings and idle complaints of popular sovereignty, 
or in mistaken efforts to thwart or hamper it, but, with 
sympathetic, grateful recognition of the just and perma- 
nent rule of the people, let education's greatest work be 
to qualify them to use their power with wisdom, justice, 
and courage. 

In the opening page of his History of our University, 
Mr. Quincy says : " It was from the first intimately con- 
nected with political and religious opinion and events. 
In every period its destinies have been materially affected 
by the successive changes which time and intellectual 
advancement have produced in political relations and 
religious influences." 

Here in her past is the key to her future, and a clear 
indication of the close contact with the world which our 



SQ HARVARD ALUMNI. 

University was lueaut to keep. In the problems and 
conflicts of to-day, as in the earlier ones for political 
and religious freedom, our universities and colleges have 
their special duties, from which they cannot escape if 
they would hold their position as leaders of opinion, and 
be true to their origin and purpose. To guide a people, 
their life must go out into the life of the people with the 
svmpathy and aid which win their confidence and chal- 
lenge their support. 

When I hear it said, in a spirit of sneering criticism, 
that Harvard and the struggling, toiling masses have 
come together, and I know their union is to aid in the 
settlement of industrial, social, and political problems 
which need an intelligent solution, I proudly hail the 
sneer as proof of Harvard's devotion to her duty, and 
lift up my heart in gratitude to Alma Mater. Higher 
education is imperatively required to enter into just such 
alliance, and to take aggressive leadership for truth and 
right in the great activities around us. Ignorance can 
never be the founder of liberty or progress or the govern- 
ing power of any civilized nation. Firmly insisting that 
the proper sovereign of a nation is its people, we realize 
that our safety and prosperity rest upon their intelli- 
gence and education. For this end has been established 
our cherished system of popular education, beginning 
with the primary public school, and culminating in the 
university. The need our fathers felt and met in estab- 
lishing that system is vastly greater now than in their 
day of simple, uniform life and equality of condition. 
The many, varied interests of our time, the inequalities 
of life, the tendency to separation and conflict, the enor- 
mous increase of the power of government and of the 
subjects it controls, — all these place upon education a 
greater responsibility, and open to it a grander oppor- 
tunity. If, as Lord Sherbrookc said, it was the duty of 



HAUVAKl) ALUMNI. 87 

the rich " to educate their masters," with us is a like 
obligation ; but here it rests upon the school and college, 
and not so much now to fix the inherent rights of Amer- 
ican citizenship as to make American citizens fully 
fitted to exercise their rights and their own supreme 
political power. 

The greater the capacity for this work, the greater the 
responsibility to do it. Higher education can never 
meet this its obligation to a people in a spirit of exclu- 
siveness or separation from the world. The power of 
the university for good is not limited to its influence on 
the life within, but rather is measured by its contact 
with the world outside. As its v^^ork and life flow out 
into this larger life, as fearlessly yet with sympathetic 
touch it meets and uplifts the people, it rises to the 
grandeur of its opportunity, and fulfils the hopes and 
prayers of its pious founders. 

Mr. Quincy, speaking of the early contributions to the 
College, in the " pathos of its poverty," says, " No rank, 
no order of men is unrepresented in this great crusade 
against ignorance and infidelity. None fails to appear 
at this glorious clan-gathering in favor of learning and 
religion." Harvard in her manly and honoi-able life 
has recognized the obligation this early and broad char- 
ity laid upon her. As " no rank and no order of men 
were unrepresented " in fitting her for her work, or 
failed to appear at her " gathering for learning and 
religion," so none have been excluded from her beneli- 
cence, or will ever be turned away from lier abundant 
riches. The fiery torch her clans of all ranks and 
orders early lighted still blazes for truth, for Christ and 
the Church, and still is held aloft for the enlightenment 
and progress of the world. 

We recognize the truth and beauty of the scholar's 
ideal of the place and duty of higher education. 



88 HARVARD ALUMNI. 

" Tlie most precious property of Culture," says Lowell, 
" and of a college as its trustee, is to maintain higher 
ideals of life and its purpose ; to keep trimmed and 
burning the lamps of that pharos, built by wiser than 
w^e, which warns from the reefs and shallows of popular 
doctrine." Yet to hold this place, education must grasp 
the grander thought of the great bishop, Harvard's son, 
who so well exemplified her teaching. " Every life," he 
says, " except the greatest, lives in its element, — the par- 
tial in the universal, the temporary in the eternal. All 
things that really live are feeding themselves out of a 
great atmosphere of larger life which surrounds them, 
and to which tliey must forever keep themselves open. 
The part which knows itself and lives in obedience and 
receptivity to its great whole is strong. The part which 
calls itself a whole, and shuts itself up against the inflow 
of that universal which is 'ever green,' grows dry and 
barren and desolate, and dies." Then, grandly showing 
us how Harvard has constantly been opening her life to 
the great world about her, bursting in her growth all 
bonds and limitations, that "college thought might par- 
ticipate in the more universal currents which w^ere 
sweeping through the world," he utters this sentiment, 
which should live here as long as his undying name. 
" Alas for the man who is not growing into broader 
sympathy with men the longer that he does his special 
work ! Alas for the institution that does not feel all 
life clamorous and profuse about it, the longer that it 
goes on building its little corner or laying its bit of the 
foundation of the great structure ! " 



ADDEESS 

AT HOLY CROSS COLLEGE, WORCESTER, ON COMMENCE- 
MENT DAY, JUNE 29, 1893. 

Reverend Kector; 

I AM deeply touched by your kind words and by the 
hearty welcome Holy Cross ever gives to the Gov- 
ernor. Coming to you somewhat wearied after a month 
of visits to schools and colleges, I find in this beautiful 
summer scene rest and peace, and in the young life 
around me encouragement and inspiration. I gladly 
bring you the congratulations of the Commonwealth 
that another year of prosperity and happiness has 
blessed this institution, fitly rounding out its half 
century of useful life. 

It is one of the happy coincidences of the Governor's 
experience that at the close of the college year his 
final visits are to Harvard and Holy Cross, — the one 
specially recalling the virtues of the early life of our 
Commonwealth, the other the larger freedom and tolera- 
tion of later days, but both essential factors in her de- 
velopment and prosperity. When I visit Harvard, — the 
broadest, greatest university in the land, as I her son 
believe her to be, — I reflect less upon her present power 
and grandeur than upon the days of her early beginning. 
1 think of the heroic work of her Puritan founders, of 
their courage and character, of the largeness of their 
vision, of their strength of purpose, of their noble 
determination to make education the very groundwork 



90 HOLY CROSS COLLEGE. 

of our Nation, and of the schools, the seminaries and 
colleges which in this spirit they founded and cherished. 
With respect and reverence I recall their labors, and 
thank God for the priceless contribution they made to 
our national life. Then I come to Holy Cross, founded 
by men of a later generation and of a different religious 
belief. I find here an institution which our Puritan an- 
cestors hardly would have welcomed, — a Catholic college 
to which my early predecessors would have brought only 
with hesitation the congratidations of the Common- 
wealth. Yet to-day, as she extends as hearty a greet- 
ing to Holy Cross as to Harvard, one is impressed by 
the change which has come in her own life. We see 
how she has broadened out since the early days, cast 
aside old prejudices, and, freeing herself from narrow 
restrictions and limitations, become a mightier State, 
because tolerant in opinion, broad in thought, and just 
and generous in her love for all her children. As a 
Catholic and Irish exile ^ stands upon Plymouth Rock 
and praises in undying verse the sterling virtues of the 
Pilgrim fathers, and as many a man with their blood in 
his veins pays his tribute of love and respect to this 
Irish poet and patriot, we know that times have changed, 
and we rejoice that in our emancipated Commonwealth 
relisrion is not now a matter between the individual 
and tlie State, but only between him and his God. We 
rejoice that Massachusetts takes to her bosom all her 
people, without regard to race or creed, or to any acci- 
dent of birth or fortune. 

May I close with a word to these young men who now 
step forth from Alma Mater to become our fellow-stu- 
dents and workers in the world outside. If my words 
have not the weight which years and gray hair would 
give, they come at least from one who has not been so 

1 The reference is to John Boyle O'Reilly. 



HOLY CROSS COLLEGE. 91 

long away from college life as to have forgotten its 
activities and pleasures, but long enough, perhaps, to 
know something of the larger life into which you now 
enter. Carry into that life the same vigor, courage, 
and honorable ambition which have marked your col- 
lege days, and maintain in it the same high standard 
of character and manliness. Remember, the advantages 
you have here received are held by you in trust, not to 
be selfishly enjoyed, but to be used to help your fellow- 
men, and that, as the world ever needs the light of 
knowledge, so does the duty rest upon the scholar freely 
to give what freely he has received. The work, the 
struggle, the victory in the contests of later life are 
but the repetition of experiences you have had. Bring- 
to these contests, with vour training and education, the 
zeal and perseverance of your college work and sports, 
and no man need fear failure ; but remember that there 
is something greater than material success, that more 
important than making a living is the making a life. 
So — 

" Grandly begin ; though thou hast tmie 
But for a line, be that sublime. 
Not failure, but low aim is crime." 

The valedictory has been spoken, — Holy Cross has 
said farewell. As her doors close upon you, and with 
sadness you part from Alma Mater, I give you the sa- 
lutatory of the Commonwealth, her welcome and god- 
speed as you take your place of usefulness and honor 
in her larger life. 



SPEECH 

AT THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF WILLIAMS 
COLLEGE, OCT. 10, 1893. 

AN honorable, useful life, whether of an individual 
or institution, is always worth commemoratino- 
not only as our grateful remembrance of worthy things 
accomplished, but as a duty to make them an influence 
helpful to the present and the future. And when such 
life is part of the history of the State, interwoven with 
her work and fulfilling her high ideals, it is fitting that 
she should give it her recognition and commendation. 
So to-day as old Williams gathers her children hither to 
celebrate her anniversary and to renew their loyalty to 
her, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to us a living, 
loving personality, gladly comes to rejoice in her rejoi- 
cing, and to offer her greetings and congratulations. 

I esteem it a privilege to be her representative to 
bring to you her message : yet not as her representative 
only have I come ; but, greatlv honored bv this Colles-e, 
I am no longer a stranger within your gates, but per- 
mitted, as one of Williams's children, to kneel with you 
at her feet, and with gratitude and love to call her " Alma 
Mater." It is true, I am a recent alumnus, born perhai)s, 
in the words of the apostle, " out of due time." It is 
also true, as sailors say, that I have come in bv the 
cabin window rather than by the hard work of the fore- 
castle and deck. If, because of this, I cannot under 
your adoption be received into full standing in the 



ANNIVERSARY OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 93 

family circle, may I hope to be recognized at least as 
one of her warmest friends, glad to come whenever the 
children gather at the old homestead. 

In this presence, and amid these scenes so full to you 
of cherished recollections, I hesitate to use the precious 
minutes in which others will tell of the work and life of 
this College and, recalling to you familiar faces and old 
days, give fresh glow to the fraternity and friendship 
which bind closely college men each to the other, and 
all to Alma Mater. And yet the presence here of the 
Commonwealth suggests that a word should be said 
of the relation of Williams to the State, and of higher 
education to her people. 

I doubt if in all history there is an instance where the 
founders of a State so distinctly felt and clearly fore- 
cast the influence and necessity of the highest education 
for the success of their grand work as did our Puritan 
fathers and those who followed in their footsteps when 
they created and developed our State and National 
Governments. They seemed to comprehend the im- 
portance and result of their labor, to know that tliey 
were founding institutions for generations to come, 
whose happiness and welfare depended upon the fathers' 
wisdom and foresight. So they determined to make 
education through public school and college a per- 
manent, permeating influence to strengthen character, 
promote good citizenship and the prosperity of the 
Commonwealth. 

We all remember the first instance in this Common- 
wealth of this purpose of the founders, — in the estab- 
lishment of the college at Cambridge. Out of their 
poverty they gave it ; with struggle and sacrifice sus- 
tained it ; in prayer and pious faith watched over it ; 
and brought the full power of Church and State to 
guide and govern it. In the terse and simple Ian- 



94 ANNIVERSARY OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 

<2:uage of its founders, in the colonial statute estab- 
lishing it, in many later laws, and in our Constitution 
repeatedly, is found the people's recognition of the neces- 
sity and place of higher education in the body politic. 
As Church and State became more distinct, and the 
latter assumed more fully the practical work of govern- 
ment, she did not fail to cherish the higher institutions 
of learning as an integral part of our great system of 
popular education, upon which the security and prosper- 
ity of our free institutions must ever rest. As among 
the first Acts of the Colony was the founding of Harvard 
College, so its last legislative Act was the charter, Oct. 
4, 1780, of Phillips Academy at Andover, based upon 
the declaration that " the education of youth has ever 
been considered by the wise and good as an object of 
the highest consequence to the safety and happiness of 
a people." In the same year the noble sentiment and 
purpose of our wise and pious ancestors were incor- 
porated into the State Constitution in those grand 
provisions of its fifth chapter, which have stood un- 
challenged for more than a century, and will stand as 
long as that fundamental charter of our State endures. 
So the wisdom of our ancestors and their devotion to 
education were vigorously maintained in the laws and 
by the acts of generations of their children. 

One such act, hardly second to any in importance, 
to-day we celebrate. In the founding of this, the second 
College of the Commonwealth, in the necessity for its 
creation, in the generous spirit and lofty sentiment 
which gave it birth, in its purposes and principles, there 
was a striking resemblance between the older and the 
younger sister, between the two great institutions which 
planted civilization and learning each in the midst of a 
wilderness. The resemblance marks the continuity of 
Puritan influence, the development of the work of the 



ANNIVERSARY OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 95 

founders of our State, and the permanence of their ideas 
and institutions. 

Here in the depths of the primeval forest, in the days 
of colonial government, and in the very midst of war, 
a frontier colonel, with armor on, facing his country's 
foes and standing in the shadow of death, brave and 
generous, filled with practical Puritan sentiment and the 
loving spirit and forecast of Harvard and Shepard, anx- 
ious that others should have advantages he lacked, — 
here with this spirit and purpose he founded this College 
of the wilderness. But two conditions he imposed, — 
we thank him for both, — one that his infant institution 
should " fall within the Colony of Massachusetts," the 
other that it should bear his name. Its location, but 
not its influence or work, was to be limited to our State. 
Like the old "Farmers' Almanac" of Bailev Thomas, it 
is " calculated for the meridian of Massachusetts, but 
will answer for any of the adjoining States." 

So came the second of our o^reat institutions which 
was to promote and develop tliat higher element in our 
public education which, in accord with the dominant and 
universal sentiment of the people, had found recognition 
through all our colonial legislation, and become perma- 
nently embodied in the organic law of our State. 

And now we come to celebrate its hundred years of 
useful life, to rejoice in its prosperity, and to note how 
faithfully it has carried out the purpose of its creation. 
Others will tell its history, of the master minds who have 
guided its destiny, and of the many men who have gone 
forth from here, carrying the teacliing and influence of 
Williams into every walk of life. Religion and education 
have felt its quickening touch, literature, science, and 
the professions been advanced by its work, and public 
life in State and Nation uplifted by its high ideals. In 
all of this its life has gone out into the world's activities. 



96 ANNIVERSARY OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 

following the injunction of our Constitution to diffuse 
wisdom and knowledge generally among the body of the 
people, and recognizing the duty of education, not only 
to instruct, but to influence and lead them. Mills and 
his associates, planning under the historic haystack in 
yonder meadow to carry religion and civilization, which 
their missionary ancestors had brought to Plymouth 
Rock, back across continent and ocean to the Old World 
for the enlightenment of heathen peoples, rose to a 
true conception of the duty resting upon education if it 
would fulfil the purpose of the founders of our colleges 
and the framers of our Constitution. Many a son of 
Williams since, feeling the impress of Griffin or Hop- 
kins and their learned, pious associates or successors, 
has gone forth into other fields of usefulness in the spirit 
of the divine command, " Freely ye have ^received, freely 
also give." So in the lives and work of her children 
this " Missionary College " has made higher education 
not a mere preparation for professional life, but a pioneer 
and leader in great movements to benefit mankind ; and 
in the teaching and example of its authorities has ever 
followed the high ideals and aspirations of its famous 
president, who believed the truest education to be " when 
the spirit of literature and the spirit of science shall 
minister before the spirit of piety, and pour their oil into 
the lamp that feeds its waxing flame ; when study shall 
be nerved to its highest efforts by Christian benevolence, 
and young men shall grow up at the same time into the 
light of science and the beauty of holiness." 



SPEECH 

DELIVERED AT TRENTON BATTLE MONUMENT, OCT. 

19, 1893. 

THE Commonwealth of Massachusetts, whicli gladly 
has contributed to this commemorative monument, 
comes now as gladly to join with her sister State in its 
dedication, and to renew the ties of friendship and union 
whicli, born of struggle and war, of a common experi- 
ence and patriotism, have ever bound closely together 
our respective States, and made them powerful factors 
in creating, preserving, and developing our national 
Republic and the institutions of a free and prosperous 
people. 

Most fitly and usefully we recall by this monument 
the heroism and patriotism of the past, and the dark 
days of a great struggle, when, through suffering and 
death, men became heroes, and, rising above little things 
and petty interests, attested their supreme devotion to 
a great cause and to the freedom and safety of the whole 
people. 

I need not i-epeat the story to-day recalls, — the wintry 
crossing of the stormy Delaware, the midnight march, 
the attack, the victory, which broke away the clouds of 
despair, and brought to Washington and his country 
new hope and courage. 

"At that awful moment," says one historian, "the 
whole future of America and of all that America sig- 
nifies to the world rested upon his single Titanic will." 

7 



98 TRENTON BATTLE MONUMENT. 

" Until that hour," says Bancroft, " the life of the United 
States flickered like a dying flame. . . . That victory 
turned the shadow of death into morning." Nor need 
I speak again the praises of brave men who ever have 
had their country's gratitude for their patriotic service. 

Massachusetts rejoices that in those events and upon 
this, historic battle-field she did her full duty. Yonder 
amid the ice and perils were Colonel John Glover and the 
men from Marblehead, leading the army with unflinch- 
ing courage on that fateful Christmas night. Here with 
him stood eight regiments of Massachusetts troops as 
her contribution to a great and necessary victory. 

Where all were true and brave soldiers, where each 
of the Thirteen Colonies was doing her utmost for the 
common weal, one hesitates to make selection or com- 
parison. Yet, speaking for Massachusetts, I may be 
permitted, with pardonable pride, to quote the words of 
General Knox, a hero of this battle-field, in his speech 
to the Massachusetts Legislature. He said, — 

"I wish the members of this body knew the people of 
Marblehead as well as I do. I could wish that they had 
stood on the banks of the Delaware Kiver in 1776, in that 
bitter night when the commander-in-chief had drawn up his 
little army to cross it, and had seen the powerful current 
beariner onward the floating masses of ice which threatened 
destruction to whosoever should venture upon its bosom. 

"1 wish that, when this occurrence threatened to defeat the 
enterprise, they could have heard that distinguished warrior 
demand, 'Who will lead us on?' and seen the men of Mar- 
blehead, and Marblehead alone, stand forward to lead the 
army along the perilous path to unfading glories and honors 
in the achievements at Trenton. There went the fishermen 
of Marblehead, alike at home upon land or water, alike ardent, 
patriotic, and unflinching, whenever they unfurled the flag of 
the country." 



TRENTON BATTLE MONUMENT. 99 

The bronze statue of a soldier of that Marblehead 
regiment, the contribution of Massachusetts to this 
monument, commemorates their valor. 

What they did, others did. All shared in the dan- 
ger of the struggle and in the glory of the victory. And 
so we build this monument in grateful recognition of 
patriotic services. 

Yet not for the past only do we build it, but for the 
present also, and the future. Gratitude it expresses, 
patriotism it teaches, making of the past an education 
to us. From these monuments we can catch an inspira- 
tion to become braver, broader, and more patriotic, and 
go hence consecrated to nobler, truer lives. Peace has 
followed revolution and war. Ah, but peace, too, has 
its duties, which call for courage and patriotism. Insti= 
tutions for freedom and self-government have by the 
blood of the fathers been created, but they require 
sacrifices by the children, too, for their maintenance and 
preservation. The Union has been established, but it 
rests with us ever to make it stronger in the hearts and 
lives of all our people. 

Are there not duties of to-day which can best be met 
in the spirit and patriotism of 1776 ? Do we not hear 
the mutterings of discontent and the strife of selfish 
interests ? Do we not see patriotism yielding to policy, 
and partisanship more potent than the people's welfare ? 
Have we not heard the right of a majority to rule — a 
fundamental principle of our Republic — obstructed and 
called in question ? Have we not seen a part made 
greater than the whole, and the Nation's demand for 
necessary legislation pass unheeded in the clamor of 
local interests ? 

This is not the spirit of 1776 It was not in such 
conflict and selfishness that our nation had its birth, nor 
will it in them find safety and prosperity. 



100 TRENTON BATTLE MONUMENT. 

To-dav wc have our leader. We need the wisdom 
and courao-e which sustained Washington, the patriotism 
and self-sacrifice which here, on this battle-field, placed 
country above everything, and that larger view which, 
despising petty things, bound the Thirteen Colonies to- 
gether, hand in hand, heart to heart, for the common 
welfare. Then shall we, as the fishermen of Marblehead, 
be "alike ardent, patriotic, and unflinching" in devotion 
to our country and to its brave and loyal President. 

So this monument teaches us its lesson. God grant 
we may heed it, and meet our duty as bravely as did the 
fathers theirs ! 



SPEECHES ON MILITARY OCCASIONS. 



ADDRESS 

TO THE CAMBRIDGE POSTS OF THE GRAND ARMY OF 
THE REPUBLIC, MEMORIAL DAY, MAY 30, 1885. 

I DO not think, Mr. Commander, I ought to waste the 
precious minutes of this hour with thoughts too 
crude to gently touch the sacred memories the day re- 
calls. You will hear from lips much more eloquent than 
mine of the heroism and sacrifice it commemorates, and 
of the patriotism and duty its touching ceremonies ever 
teach. And yet I am glad of the privilege of saying 
a word in behalf of the city of Cambridge. She gladly 
joins her honored living to pay her tribute of respect to 
her honored dead. It is most fitting for her to do so. 
Their loss was her loss. Generously this old historic 
city, rich in the memory of brave deeds of brave 
men, gave of her strength, youth, and manhood that 
the Nation might live, and live, in fact, the land of 
freedom. No city did more ; Cambridge, if true to her 
history, could have done no less. The Nation's life was 
spared, the curse of slavery was abolished; but the 
graves which to-day we decorate tell how great was 
the cost, how fearful was the sacrifice of that struggle. 

And now, following a most worthy custom, we hush 
the hum of business, and peacefully, with love and 
reverence, we deck the graves, and read again the 
lesson they teach. It is not for me to tell, but rather 
to listen, to that lesson. Yet, speaking for a younger 



102 CAMBRIDGE POSTS OF THE GRAND ARMY. 

generation, whose memory hardly reaches back to those 
grand days when it was glorious to live, there is a 
word I feel that I must utter. Twenty years have 
stilled the bitterness of the conflict ; its animosities 
are over. The hands of Southern soldiers have placed 
their garlands on the tablets yonder. The great heart 
of the North has gone forth with forgiveness, love, 
and blessing to the people w^hom it conquered. But the 
best of the war remains, — its patriotic education. It 
was a grand marshalling of a nation's conscience, it was 
a great outpouring of a nation's patriotism. In the 
blood that was shed we may consecrate ourselves to 
nobler, manlier lives. Our government, founded on uni- 
versal suffrage, needs universal education. More than 
that, it needs the education which shall touch the hearts 
and mould the character of its citizens. Such education 
will build a bulwark for the safety of the Nation, and 
make the generations yet to come ready and willing, in 
their turn, to do the duty for which their fathers died. 
As we younger men look back upon the war, we bless 
this day, which keeps ever fresh in memory the lessons 
of patriotism that have outlived the sting of the con- 
flict. Cambridge never has forgotten, and never will, 
Memorial Day or her veterans. Their love and devotion 
to her have touched a responsive chord in her heart 
which answers with equal love and devotion. She gladly 
joins with you in the celebration of the day ; and as 
the years roll on, and your ranks become thinned, and 
one by one the veterans linger and fall by the wayside, 
she, ever young, ever strong, ever patriotic, will rejoice 
to take up your labor of love and remembrance ; and as 
she scatters her garlands on the graves of her heroic 
dead, making of the patriotism of the past inspiration 
for the present, she teaches her children the best lesson 
that can fall from a mother's lips. 



ADDEESS 

AS PEESIDING OFFICER AT THE MEMORIAL SERVICE 
TO GENERAL GRANT IN UNION HALL, CAMBRIDGE, 
AUGUST 8, 1885. 

TO-DAY the Nation, bending over the bier of one 
whom she has honored, trusted, and loved, humbly 
bowing to the will of God, pays her tribute of respect 
to him who is dead, and honor and homage to him 
who still lives, and ever will live, in the hearts of a 
grateful people. 

She remembers that he was her successful general 
when success was needed for a Nation's life ; her firm 
and prudent ruler when a firm but gentle hand was 
needed to bring back the old-time vigor to the new-born 
Union ; and, in his dying days, while suffering bravely 
and patiently, he — the grim victor of a hundred bat- 
tles — spoke the words of forgiveness, peace, and love 
that joined a new patriotism to a new vigor, and welded 
the States into a more perfect Union. 

No wonder the whole Nation mourns and misses him ; 
no wonder a Nation, saved, re-born and re-united, to-day, 
sadly, with tears and universal grief, feels the deep 
debt she owes to him. 

Loyal old Cambridge, who proudly followed him in 
his victories, mingles her tears with those of her sister 
cities. The city government has most fittingly set 
apart this day as a day of mourning, and has chosen 
familiar voices to speak her grief. 



ADDKESS 

AT THE TAVEKTY-FIFTII ANNIVEKSARY OF THE DE- 
PARTURE OF THE FH?ST COJIPANY OF VOLUNTEERS 
TO THE WAR, CAMBRIDGE, APRIL 17, 18S6. 

WHAT means this great outpouring of the people ? 
Why do we hear to-day these strains of martial 
music in our streets, and march again under the old 
flag which every patriot proudly follows ? 

Surely the war is over ; its great mission is accom- 
plished, its last trace of bitterness has vanished under 
the dying benediction of the great commander. There 
is now " No war or battle's sound," the trumpet speaks 
" not to the armed throng," but " peaceful is the night " 
as when '' the Prince of light His reign of peace upon 
the earth betran." There remains a countrv forever 
free and forever united as the first-fruit of the struggle 
and the sacrifice; with that have come contentment, 
happiness, and prosperity. This is the jiicture of 
to-day. How different were the days of '61 ! Then 
there was an "irrepressible conflict" that was pass- 
ing from the forum of debate unsettled to the battle- 
field. Slavery was in our midst, and about the land 
rebellion boldly stalked. There came a cry of agony 
from a Nation in distress, a call to her sons to serve, 
defend, and save lier. ^Many heard and answered 
it. But here in old historic Cambridge, whose earliest 
records attest the patriotism of the fathers for the hap- 
piness and freedom of the children, whose soil has been 



ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST COMPANY OF VOLUNTEERS. 105 

consecrated with blood slied at the Nation's birth, where 
now — 

" The tall gray shaft on Bunker Hill 
Speaks greetings to Memorial Hall," — 

here, first, the citizens heard the call, and volunteered, 
as you. Sir, requested, "to maintain the integrity and 
glory of our flag and Union." ^ This is the meaning of 
our greeting. Cambridge to-night proudly honors her 
sons who added to her historic record this honorable 
distinction, who forgot themselves in remembrance of 
their country. She celebrates not the war, the struggle, 
nor the victor}^, but the patriotism, the heroism, and the 
sacrifice ; and by this act she educates her children's 
children. I call it education, for I hold that there is a 
soul in brave deeds and patriotic services which lives 
and speaks to us through their memorials and cele- 
brations, making of the past inspiration for the present. 
So the Old South Meeting-house spoke to the troops as 
they cheered her, and then marched witli stouter hearts 
to the front. The soldiers' monument on Cambridge 
Common, as it will ever commemorate the dead, so will 
it ever uplift and educate those who remember them. 
Memorial Day, the saddest and mo.st beautiful of all 
the year, with its touching remembrance of men who 
live because " they died to win a lasting name," is the 
ever-living spring of patriotism, where we may conse- 
crate ourselves to deeds as worthy and to deaths as 
noble. All such memorials inspire patriotism, strengthen 
character, and make men. Men so educated are the 
safety of the State. Better for her protection than 
standing armies and compulsory service are the patriot- 
ism, the love of law and love of liberty, that come 

1 Captain James P. Richardson, who organized at Cambridge the first 
company of volunteers for the war. 



106 ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST COMPANY OF VOLUNTEERS- 

from honor and reverence to those who dared much 
and suffered much for her sake. 

" Wliat constitutes a state ? . . . 
Men, high-minded men, 
Men who their duties know, 
But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain." 

Captain Richardson, you, earlier than the rest, saw- 
gathering the dark cloud of war. You felt the suffer- 
ing of the Nation before the storm broke over her. You 
and your gallant company heard her cry ahnost before 
it was uttered. For this, to-day, we honor you. Cam- 
bridge will ever hold in loving remembrance this act of 
her loyal children. She bids me tender to you all, her 
gratitude and greeting ; and every one of her sixty 
thousand people joins in giving you a royal welcome. 

Sir, you, as a son of Cambridge, gave of your youth 
and strength and life to the service of our country. 
Now, in ripening years, you come back to gladden us 
with your presence. What can we wish for you as you 
approach the threescore years and ten ? Honor ? That 
you have, and well have earned it. Remembrance ? 
That you shall ever have. What more or better than 
that Time may deal gently with you, and give you rest 
and peace and happiness ! 



SPEECH 

AT THE DINNER OF THE ANCIENT AND HONORABLE 
ARTILLERY COMPANY, FANEUIL HALL, JUNE 1, 189L 

IT is a pleasant and fitting custom of the Common- 
wealth each year to extend her greeting to this, her 
oldest military organization, and to congratulate it upon 
reaching another milestone in its long and honorable 
life, with its reputation, its vigor, its numbers, and even 
its privileges, all fully maintained. Hitherto my mili- 
tary duty has thrown me rather with the younger 
soldiers, and my active military service has been to 
receive their generous welcome, to lead them in marches, 
not against an enemy, but where the only danger seemed 
to be from the artillery of fair ladies' glances. To-day, 
with pleasure I face the brave and the venerable, the 
Ancient and the Honorable. 

I am told that an illustrious predecessor of mine, with 
a taste for genealogy, declared that this company could 
boast not only of two hundred and fifty-three years of 
life, but back even to the days of Israel, and that the 
Prophet Isaiah had it in mind when, in foretelling con- 
demnation on Israel, he said, "The Lord will cut off 
from Israel head and tail, . . . the ancient and honor- 
able, he is the head." Much as we regret condemnation 
from so high an authority, we rejoice to find that its life 
was spared by an all-wise and overruling Providence. 
But even in his condemnation, the prophet complimented 
you, not only by placing you at the head, but by placing 
you far above another class, whom he thus described: 



108 ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY, 1891. 

"The prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the 
leaders of this people cause them to err ; and they that 
are led of them are destroyed." He evidently refers 
to the politicians, those reckless men who in peaceful 
June are alarming the people with dire prophecies of 
what will happen in November. The loss of the 
Ancient and Honorable, he says, is cutting off the head 
of the body politic ; the loss of these others, he declares, 
is merely the docking of its tail. 

But, speaking more seriously, the Commonwealth ap- 
preciates the value of this organization, and greets it as 
one of her oldest and most cherished institutions. It may 
be true that it is not perfect in military tactics, that it 
docs not always set an exact, undeviating standard of 
military uniform ; and yet in its honorable age, in its 
distinguished membership, in its esprit de corps, in its 
interest in public affairs, it has always rendered valuable 
service to the Commonwealth. These virtues I count as 
better than steadiness of step. They quite excuse a 
raiment as varied as the colors of Joseph's coat. During 
its life of over two hundred and fifty years it has always 
had upon its rolls men who have rendered public service 
honorable to themselves and useful to their fellow-men. 
Here have been mustered many men distinguished in 
civic life. Here have been mustered many more who 
have gone forth to give their blood and even their lives 
for the defence of their Commonwealth and their coun- 
try. Through this organization, too, many have been led 
to take a keen interest in the militia of our State. I count 
this organization as one of the potent influences that 
have raised the militia of our Commonwealth up to its 
present high state of efficiency. Many other influences 
have had their weight. The men, ambitious, energetic, 
have done much for themselves ; the fostering care of 
the Commonwealth has done much ; the splendid admin- 



ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY, 1891. 109 

istration of its able and permanent adjutant-general lias 
done much. But to all these things has been added the 
kindly interest of the older veterans in this organization, 
who, with undiminished love for it, still take a keen 
interest in the active and younger soldiers of the State. 

But, Mr. Toastmaster, you have asked me to speak 
for the Commonwealth. Her first word, in courtesy and 
in justice, is for you ; her next, with pride, honorable 
and just, is for herself. How true is the sentiment of 
your toast ! " Radiant she has been in the annals of 
war and in the arts of peace, ever at the front in every 
advance for human rights." I count among the arts of 
peace, religion, education, self-government, the church, 
tlie school-house, and the town-meeting. These, early 
and ever since, have been established and fostered by 
the people of our Commonwealth, and have placed her 
in the very forefront of this sisterhood of States. Our 
forefatliers knew that the first essential for free institu- 
tions and a prosperous Commonwealth was to have an 
intelligent. God-fearing people. So, with great sacrifice 
but wonderful foresight, they planted the school-house 
by the church, and at the very birth of this your glo- 
rious military organization they founded the university 
and established our public-school system. From that 
day to this, generously of her wealth, freely of the best 
of her ability, has our old Commonwealth given to the 
cause of education. With like energy and generosity 
have the people supported religion in all of its denomi- 
nations. So, too, with skill and industry have they pro- 
moted commerce, agriculture, and our manufactures ; and 
then by individual effort and wise laws have sought to 
bring prosperous capital hand in hand with contented 
labor, that here, as in the Acadian land of which the 
poet sang, industry might be described as " the whirr of 
the wheels, and the songs of the maidens." 



110 ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY, 1891. 

Radiant, too, has Massachusetts been in the annals of 
war, ever in the front for the rights of man. Half-way 
down the lifetime of your company, when the oppressive 
laws of the mother-country were infringing upon the 
rights of the people, here came the indignant protests 
of the town-meetings, which meant revolution and 
independence. And later, wlieii there came the clasli 
of arms, here were found the volunteers, ragged, half- 
armed, but for liberty and independence ready to defy 
the strongest power in the world. This old hall re- 
calls their deeds as it does many a glorious agitation 
since, where Massachusetts has led for humanity and 
freedom. Why, but a few hours ago, witli loving hands 
we were strewing our garlands on the graves of sons of 
Massachusetts, her patriotic dead who stood true to her 
when she was summoned to do her full duty to the Nation 
in its struggle for life and liberty. Proud of her glo- 
rious history, rejoicing in her prosperity and leader- 
ship, now let us one and all pledge to her again our love 
and our loyalty, and join in the prayer, " May God save 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ! " 



SPEECH 

AT THE DINNER OF THE ANCIENT AND HONORABLE 
ARTILLERY COMPANY, FANEUIL HALL, JUNE 6, 1892. 

I ESTEEM it one of the high privileges of my official 
position to meet with this old and honored military 
organization, and after listening to the stirring words of 
martial preaching, to enjoy your abundant hospitality 
and good fellowship, and then to exchange with you the 
cordial greetings which the mother State ever extends 
to her children, and which you, her loyal sons, give to 
her with your whole heart and soul. 

For a second time it is my privilege to be with you, 
bearing to you her hearty congratulations that another 
year of honorable record has been added to the more 
than two hundred and fifty years which have distinguished 
your life, and have kept it, not only in its age, but in 
its patriotism and public spirit and in the high character 
and honorable service of its members in war and peace, 
fully in touch with the grand life of a great Common- 
wealth. Perhaps the fact that for a second time I ad- 
dress you, and now as old acquaintances and friends, 
has led you to be a little personal in your toast, and in 
it to refer to the terrible warlike powers with which 
the Constitution invests the Governor. I am sorry you 
have done this. Not that you have incorrectly quoted 
the Constitution. It is true he is given supreme military 
power, with authority " to assemble in martial array and 
put in warlike posture the inhabitants, and to kill, slay, 



112 ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY, 1892. 

and destroy all and every such person and persons as 
shall at any time hereafter in a hostile manner attempt 
or enterprise the destruction, invasion, detriment, or 
annoyance of this Commonwealth." But I had hoped 
the fact was little known, and that in these davs of 
dramatic political events and surprises I might avail 
myself of the power thus given before an alarmed peo- 
ple had awakened to the fact of its existence. My past 
experience has convinced me that in the fall of the year 
there are certain persons, in many ways most reputable 
and eminent, who are accustomed to go from one end 
of our State to the other in a " hostile manner, invad- 
ing, conquering, and annoying this Commonwealth," 
but especially her chief magistrate. I had quite deter- 
mined that her good and his own required that this 
warlike power of the Constitution should be invoked, 
and that the governor should " assemble in martial 
array and put in warlike posture the inhabitants, and 
destroy, if necessary, and conquer by all fitting ways, 
enterprises, and means, whatsoever all and every such 
person and persons." I was planning to call out this 
ancient military organization, to urge it to lay aside all 
political differences, to permit within its ranks opinions 
varied and picturesque as its many-colored raiment, 
and, rising to the full gravity of the situation, to rally 
to the defence of the Commonwealth and the support 
of her Governor. This I found I could do, even without 
the advice and consent of the Executive Council. But, 
Sir, this publicity has defeated my plans and my hopes. 
Our political campaigns must be conducted in the old 
way, and the commander-in-chief must abandon the 
idea of leading the Ancient and Honorable Artillerj^ in 
martial array and posture against political or other 
opponents. 

But, speaking more seriously, I like the quaint phrases 



ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY, 1892. 113 

you have cited, in which the patriot Adams in 1780 de- 
fined the power of the Governor in our now venerable 
Constitution. They speak with an emphasis of authority 
and a consciousness of freedom. They establish a strin- 
gent measure of executive responsibility, and compel in 
the critical time of war the chief executive of the 
Commonwealth to take with the high honors of his 
office the full burden of power and responsibility. When 
to those phrases there were given life and meaning by 
the master-mind and patriotic soul of Governor Andrew, 
under his leadership the whole people of a great Com- 
monwealth were marshalled to brave deeds and glorious 
sacrifices, and loyally and proudly followed him as he 
guided, governed, and inspired them ; and then in the 
discharge of his exacting and responsible duties gave 
his life for his country as truly as any soldier who ever 
died upon the field of battle. 

Everywhere in the great work of the Revolutionary 
patriots who gave to us our independence and our Con- 
stitution will be found the recognition and assertion 
that the people are the sole, the sovereign power to 
which is owed allegiance, and that their executive magis- 
trates are their servants, and should be responsible ever 
to them. So, drafting in the midst of war the funda- 
mental law of the Commonwealth, they gave to their 
elected Governor extraordinary war power, making him 
constantly and frequently answerable to them for its 
exercise, and so retaining sovereign power in the sov- 
ereign people. Just as clearly they intended, in time 
of peace and in civil administration, that the people, 
through the Governor whom they control, should retain 
full control of executive power. The modern idea, which 
has crept in through many statutes, but not through the 
Constitution, of a system of executive government by 
commissions and officers beyond the reach of the peo- 

8 



lU ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY, 1892. 

pie, and responsible to no one, is wholly foreign to the 
views and purposes of our founders, and is at variance 
with their abiding faith in the people, and in their power 
to govern themselves. 

But, Sir, this discussion of her authority reveals the 
sterner side of our Commonwealth. We who represent 
that authority in civil or military life are apt to think only 
of this. But yet she has a gentler side. She is a mother 
State, tender and true, sympathetic and human, with a 
heart and a soul. See how she has planted throughout 
her limits in every village and community her public 
school, and beside it there has grown up the church, that 
education and religion might go hand in hand to benefit 
and uplift her people. With her institutions of learning 
are found, too, her institutions for freedom, that liberty 
and self-government might, with religion and education, 
be the corner-stones of a great and prosperous Common- 
wealth. See how, with the gentle hand of a loving 
mother, she has given to her children her hospitals and 
asylums and reformatories, and the great charities which 
bring Christ into the lives of men ; how she has ever 
been foremost in the great agitations for freedom and 
human rights, and with wise and progressive laws is 
ever seeking to benefit the great masses of her people, 
to lighten the toil of labor, and to make life easier and 
happier. Recall her unflinching loyalty and public 
spirit through all the generations of her life, from the 
early days when here were done those brave deeds 
which this historic hall. Bunker Hill, and the Old 
South will forever commemorate. The same spirit 
is seen in her later life. It led forth the children's 
children to battle for the preservation of the institu- 
tions and the country which sturdy ancestors in prayer 
and faith had founded, and handed down to us as a 
priceless heritage. Only when we think of these things 



ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY, 1892. 115 

do we appreciate the true grandeur of our Common- 
wealth and find in her a mother State, with a heart over- 
flowing with love to her children, and with a soul which 
will live forever. From her to-day I bring to you and 
your distinguished guests a cordial greeting. 



SPEECH 

AT THE ANNUAL ENCAMPMENT OF THE GRAND ARMY 
OF THE REPUBLIC, FANEUIL HALL, FEB. 9, 1893. 



w 



E meet to-day in what Wordsworth calls 

" That sweet mood when pleasant thoughts 
Bring sad thoughts to the mind." 



No gathering of the year is more full of patriotic senti- 
ment touched with tender recollections than the reunion 
in this historic hall of the veterans who have carried into 
their lives its influence and its teaching, and have fought 
and suffered for the principles and institutions it com- 
memorates. Never is the greeting of the Commonwealth 
more cordially extended than when she adds to the com- 
rade's brotherly welcome the benediction of a grateful 
State. You meet in the spirit of fraternity to renew old 
friendships born of battle ; to recall the days when to- 
gether you shared the dangers and hardships of patriotic 
service ; to note with sorrow that as the journey of life 
lengthens, the ranks grow thinner; then in love and 
charity to draw more closely each to the other, and all, 
united, to renew your loyalty to our Commonwealth and 
country. And Massachusetts, proud of her veterans, 
grateful for their services, in full sympathy with these 
their sentiments and principles, comes to rejoice in your 
rejoicing, and to share with you these blessed memories 
and patriotic purposes. To understand how closely such 
an occasion touches the heart of our Commonwealth, 
how strongly with its patriotic associations it appeals to 
what is best and truest and oldest in her life, one has 



ANNUAL ENCAMPMENT OF THE G. A. R. 117 

only to run back over her history, and see how faithfully 
she has ever struggled for liberty, self-government, and 
the interests and institutions of our great Republic. 
When, as the poet says, — 

" God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for this 
planting," 

the seeds he sowed here were men, independent, coura- 
geous, capable, firm in their faith, strong in their 
character, who understood well the truth which Webster 
happily expressed, that " God grants liberty only to 
those who love it and are always ready to guard and 
defend it." Out of such seed grew our State and country, 
with every generation of their life guided by this influ- 
ence and true to this teaching. So have we advanced in 
strength and power and usefulness, not by complacent 
ease, but by struggle and strife which have wrought out 
onr independence, and established liberty here as the 
hope and the beacon-light of the civilized world. Peace 
may be the true grandeur of nations, the ideal condition of 
the ideal State; but peace it must be with liberty, justice 
and honor established and upheld. So long as wrongs 
are to be righted and rights defended, so long as liberty 
and union must be guarded, and the honor of a nation 
and the supremacy of law asserted, then, not peace, but 
discontent, agitation and strife mark the real progress and 
the true prosperity of a country. " Ense petit placidam 
sub libertate quietam," says the motto of Massachusetts. 
Peace ? Yes, peace, but with the sword for liberty's sake. 
This is the spirit which runs through the life of our 
State from 1620 to 1775, and through every generation 
since, culminating in the great conflict which in '61 led 
you forth to fields of battle because conscience and 
patriotism summoned you to duty as they had the fathers, 
and bade you fight for liberty and union. 



118 ANNUAL ENCAMPMENT OF THE G. A. R. 

So the past lives again in the present. Patriotic ser- 
vices which founded and created a nation become the 
inspiration for the sons to defend and save it ; and out of 
their sacrifices and sufferings come the example and the 
education which make the generation of to-day more fer- 
vent in its patriotism and public spirit, and stronger to 
meet its own duties and responsibilities. Strife and war 
in a great and righteous cause may lift a people out of 
petty things up to noble purposes and high ideals, and, 
purifying and unifying a nation, make it for generations 
to come better and greater and stronger. Not war as 
war, but as the mighty struggle of a whole people for 
the right, as their sacrifice to conscience and to duty, — 
herein are its glory, its education, and its inspiration. 
Such was our civil war. It had a righteous purpose and 
a glorious result. Its good is permanent. Its veterans, 
its memories and memorials teach now, and will the 
children yet unborn, the lessons of valor and patriotism 
which preserve a country, its honor, and its liberties. 
But the evil of the war is over. Its bitterness, hostility, 
and passion are gone. No soldier from his honored 
grave speaks to us of wrath or hatred, but his voice joins 
with the living veterans, telling of bravery and duty, 
and of peace, forgiveness and reunion. So let us, as 
will the coming generations, look back upon the terrible 
conflict as the sun looks down upon the troubled ocean, 
to draw up from it all that is pure and sweet and invig- 
orating, while it leaves the salt and the bitter to rest 
forever in the silent depths. This, I believe, is the 
sentiment of Massachusetts. These are her words she 
bids me speak to you. Her gratitude goes out to her 
veterans. Her blessing rests upon them. May peace 
and prosperity lighten the weight of their advancing 
years as the just reward of duty well and bravely done ! 



STATE SPEECHES. 



i:n^augural address 

TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS, JAN. 8, 189L 

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: 

ENTRUSTED by the people of the Commonwealth 
with the management of her affairs for the cur- 
rent year, we meet to-day to begin this responsible and 
honorable duty. 

A usage long established requires me at this time to 
submit to the two branches of the Legislature sugges- 
tions and recommendations that seem to need their con- 
sideration and action. It has been usual in such a 
message briefly to consider the finances of the Common- 
wealth, the condition of the various departments, their 
wishes and needs. Necessarily this information is 
gathered from official reports, all of which are sub- 
mitted to your consideration. As I can have but little 
trustworthy knowledge outside of these reports, it seems 
to me useless and perfunctory to anticipate your careful 
review of them by stating briefly what they state at 
length, or by repeating their recommendations. Espe- 
cially is this true when other matters quite as import- 
ant, and much more fundamental, demand your 
attention. I therefore depart from this usage, with full 
confidence that you will give to the reports and recom- 
mendations of the departments the careful consideration 
to which they are entitled, as the best thought of expe- 



120 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

rienced officials upon subjects with which they are 
familiar. As experience gives me a more full and 
accurate knowledge of the work and condition of the 
departments, 1 may hereafter call your attention to 
changes and reforms that may be advisable. 

The Constitution of Massachusetts declares : " Gov- 
ernment is instituted for the common good; for the 
protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the 
people, and not for the profit or private interest of any 
one man, family, or class of men : Therefore the people 
alone have an incontestable, inalienable, and indefeas- 
ible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, 
or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, 
prosperity, and happiness require it. " 

This declared purpose of government and power over 
it guaranteed to the people make it the imperative duty 
of their chosen representatives, as their trusted ser- 
vants, to keep it ever true to their interests, to watch 
for the expression of their will, and when ascertained, 
implicitly to obey it. Rarely is such expression 
directly made in an election or with a partisan voice. 
Yet by petitions, public meetings, the public Press, and 
other signs, there is unerring evidence of their will as 
to the policy of their government. A political revolu- 
tion may then give emphasis to their discontent, weight 
to their criticism, and be their mandate, not for partisan 
legislation, but for heed to their wish. Massachusetts, 
with her sturdy, intelligent, patriotic people, jealous 
of their rights and courageous in defending them, has 
manv a time been the fruitful field of agitations meant 
to be the forerunner of law, and successful in their 
purpose. This has justly made her a leader in the 
sisterhood of States. Here have been great agitations 
for human rights, for upholding the nation in important 
crises, for reforms that insure purity and independence 



INAUGUEAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 121 

in elections, efficiency and unselfishness in administra- 
tion, for retrencliinent and economy in State expendi- 
ture, for wise and progressive labor legislation, and for 
other objects, where the voice of the people was heard 
as distinctly and followed as faithfully as if they had 
directly passed upon these questions. There was no 
need of a poll to know the popular will. 

Judged by such signs of the people's thought and 
wish as have controlled in the past, I ask you to con- 
sider whether there is not Avithin our Commonwealth 
and throughout the country a profound and just feeling 
that there is a growing tendency to divert legislation 
and government from their true purpose, and to surren- 
der their control to selfish interests for selfish objects, 
rather than to use them " for the common good ; " 
whether there is not also with this feeling an earnest 
demand for some changes and reforms, within your 
power to grant, which will check this tendency, and 
keep their government well within the control of the 
people, — to the end that all law may be the free and 
full expression of the people's will, and its administra- 
tion just, pure, and honest. 

With a strong conviction that such demand exists, 
that it is just and should be heeded, I submit to your 
consideration suggestions for legislation in this direc- 
tion. They are based upon a firm belief that the people 
can safely be trusted with political power; that legisla- 
tion should be for their interest, and never controlled 
against their interest; and that their government, as 
far as possible, should be made directly and immediately 
responsible to them. Many of these suggestions deal 
with matters that have been considered without partisan 
bias by your predecessors and by the people generally. 
They are submitted in no partisan spirit, and will be 
considered by you, I am confident, with the single 
purpose of faithfully serving the public interests. 



12'2 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 



THE SUFFRAGE. 

As a first and fundamental change necessary to 
accomplish the reforms suggested, 1 call your attention 
to a restriction upon the suffrage, which is based upon 
a mistrust of the people, is unjust in principle, injurious 
and corrupting in practice, and which leaves this great 
primal right of freemen without proper constitutional 
guaranty, and subject to be controlled, obstructed, and 
possibly defeated, by legislative action. Massachusetts, 
almost alone of the States of the Union, requires the 
payment of a tax as a qualification for voting. Besides 
certain conditions as to age, sex, residence, and educa- 
tion, our Constitution also prescribes, to qualify a voter 
in any election, the payment of "any State or County 
tax which shall within two years next preceding such 
election have been assscssed upon him in any town or 
district in this Commonwealth." There is excepted 
from this provision " every citizen who shall be by law 
exempted from taxation." Whether or not there shall 
be any State or County tax, and upon what such tax 
shall be laid, whether upon polls or property, are mat- 
ters within the control of the Legislature. When laid, 
the assessment of the tax upon the citizen requires the 
action of the local Board of Assessors. The failure of 
either body to act means the disfranchisement of voters. 
Thus the suffrage, the very foundation of republican 
institutions, instead of being protected by constitutional 
guaranty, is left to the discretion of the Legislature, 
and is dependent upon its annual action. There have 
been years in the past when no State tax was required 
or laid. It may be that other sources of revenue will 
make it unnecessary at some time in the future to lay 
either a State or County tax. It is possible that in such 
a case there would be a wholesale disfranchisement. 



INAUGURAL^ ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 123 

Judicial interpretation has declared: "It [the Constitu- 
tion] confines the power, therefore, in terms to those 
who shall have paid some tax assessed within a short 
period preceding the election, and for the sake of exact- 
ness fixes that period at two years. If, therefore, the 
persons in question have been exempted for two entire 
years, either by being omitted in the assessment or by 
the abatement of the tax by the assessors, such persons 
are excluded by the plain terms and manifest intent of 
the Constitution." By statute law, within the power 
of any Legislature to change or repeal, a portion of the 
State and County tax is assessed upon polls ; otherwise 
all except the owners of taxable property would be dis- 
franchised. By statute, too, the person assessed may 
have the State and County tax separated from the town 
tax ; otherwise he must pay more than the Constitution 
requires, or be disfranchised. By statute, too, no poll 
tax can be abated within the year in which it is assessed ; 
otherwise the power to disfranchise every person who 
pays only a poll tax rests absolutely with a local board, 
and abating taxes would be a convenient way of abating 
voters. So it has become necessary by statutes to lay 
a tax, to separate the tax on polls from the tax on 
property, to forbid its abatement, that the sacred right 
of suffrage may be preserved to the freemen of Massa- 
chusetts. To repeal any of these statutes in any year 
puts in jeopardy this right. By a simple change in 
them, the Legislature may raise the most stringent and 
odious property qualification, and disfranchise a large 
majority of the voters in the State. If, for example, a 
statute was passed abolishing the poll tax, or exempting 
all polls from any State or County tax, or providing that 
those taxes should be laid wholly on real estate, at once 
by legislative act there is raised a new qualification, 
severe, repulsive, intolerable, and from one-half to 



124 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

three-quarters of the voters are disfranchised. "It is 
liability to taxation, not want of taxable property," 
as our Supreme Court has said, " which distinguishes 
citizens generally from citizens exempted by law from 
taxation. The exemption by law contemplated by the 
Constitution is an exemption from all taxation, without 
any distinction between a poll tax and any other tax. 
... So, if the Legislature were to take off the poll 
tax altogether, it could not be said that all persons 
having at any particular time no taxable property would 
be exempted by law from taxation; therefore to come 
within the other provision of the Constitution they 
must actually pay a tax to enable them to vote; and 
such in the absence of all poll taxes must be a property 
tax." That no Legislature probably would ever dare 
to exercise this power to disfranchise, is no reason for 
allowing the right of suffrage to remain within its 
control. A right so fundamental and sacred ought to 
be established, defined, and protected by the Constitu- 
tion, and so be placed beyond the reach of legislative 
discretion. Opportunity for the arbitrary use of power 
in a political emergency, for partisan purposes, is one 
of the first evils against which a republican form of 
government should guard. 

The maintenance of this qualification seems clearly 
in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment of the 
Constitution of the United States, and renders the State 
liable, as provided in that amendment, to a reduction 
of her representation in the National House of 
Representatives. 

There are other reasons quite as important that 
require the abolition of this tax qualification for voting. 
It is no test of a man's intelligence, capacity, or hon- 
esty, of his interest in public affairs, or even of his 
contribution for the support of government. Indirectly, 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 125 

in the cost of necessaries of life, especially in rent, 
does every self-supporting man pay taxes. The real 
taxpayer is not the one who pays the tax, but the one 
upon whom it finally rests. This tax deprives a man 
of his vote because of his poverty only. It forgets that 
his very poverty makes him the more dependent upon 
the efficient administration of laws that are wise, just, 
and honest, and that our democratic idea of govern- 
ment requires that he be given a voice in the making 
of these laws. In matters which concern the health, 
safety, education, convenience, and happiness of the 
community he must often look to law, while wealth 
can always protect itself. He is required, moreover, 
to perform all the duties of a citizen, and, if need be, 
to give himself in defence of his country, to hold his 
liberty and life subject to her laws, to all of which he 
is required to render implicit obedience. Why should 
he not, if of mature age and proved intelligence, have a 
voice in these matters, which vitally affect him ? There 
were both truth and just sentiment in the touching 
appeal of Henry Wilson : " Poverty is bitter enough to 
be borne, without the degradation of disfranchisement. 
The man of toil who lias reared a family, contributed 
hundreds of dollars by indirect taxation to support the 
government, who may have given perhaps his blood to 
the defence of the country, who has paid his tax cheer- 
fully for years, should not, as life begins to cast its 
shadows over him, as his arm begins to fail, and his 
step to totter, be degraded because he is, in his old age, 
compelled to drink the bitter cup of poverty. That 
constitutional provision which would deny to the poor 
man, who could not pay his tax bill, the right to vote, 
should be forever blotted out of the Constitution of a 
Christian Commonwealth. " 



126 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

Is it wise to deprive men of all share in the govern- 
ment merely because they cannot pay a direct tax ? May 
they not, if deprived of a proper, conservative vray of 
giving force to their opinions or their grievances, in 
their discontent try other means to make their wishes 
known, and their power felt? This tax qualification 
either disfranchises many thousands of men or tends to 
subject their votes to the control of another's will. It 
leads to the debasement of our politics, to the collection 
and expenditure of large sums of money at elections ; it 
tends to make wealth a necessary qualification for can- 
didates, because poverty is a disqualification for voters. 
In important and exciting contests it is of no effect 
except to degrade the voter, to burden the candidates, 
and to suggest and encourage corruption. 

Upon such grounds the Constitutional Convention of 
1853 voted more than three to one against it. Demo- 
crats, Whigs, and the founders of the Republican party 
stood side by side demanding its abolition, — amongst 
them such distinguished jurists and statesmen as 
Marcus Morton, Charles Sumner, Joel Parker, Henry 
Wilson, Charles Allen, Francis W. Bird, Otis P. Lord, 
Richard H. Dana, Jr., George S. Boutwell, Amasa 
Walker, Anson Burlingame, Nathaniel P. Banks, 
Robert Rantoul, and William Schouler. 

There is now the same demand, just as strong and 
non-partisan. Recognizing it, your predecessors of 
last year, by a large majority, adopted a resolution to 
amend the Constitution by annulling so much of it as 
requires the payment of a tax as a qualification for 
voting. This resolution now comes up for your consid- 
eration. I strongly recommend immediate and favor- 
able action upon it, and its submission to the people, 
as required by the Constitution, at an early day, — to 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 127 

the end that the suffrage may as soon as possible be 
made broader, safer, and purer, by removing the injus- 
tice, danger, and evil that now surround it. 



PROPERTY QUALIFICATION FOR GOVERNOR. 

In this connection I submit to your consideration the 
question whether any useful purpose is now served by 
the constitutional qualification for Governor that he 
must "at the time of his election ... be seised in 
his own right of a freehold within the Commonwealth 
of the value of one thousand pounds. " The very terms 
of value point to a time and circumstances vastly 
different from the present. Is not this, our sole 
remaining property qualification, out of date ? 

ELECTION LAWS. 

In a government really representative, which would 
have law the true expression of the people's will, the 
protection of elections from all improper influences is 
next in importance and order to a free and pure 
suffrage. This has been, and should be, peculiarly a 
matter of State legislation. Much has already been 
accomplished by the wise and successful reform em- 
bodied in our ballot law, which secures to every voter 
independence and secrecy, and puts upon the State a 
proper charge and responsibility. Legislation can still 
do much in the same direction. The expenses attend- 
ing nominations and elections are great and growing, 
and are believed by many to be in part unnecessaiy, 
and in part injurious. All of them affect jjublic inter- 
ests. In my judgment, the people have a right to know 
the amount of such expenses, for what and to wdiom 
incurred, and to limit their amount and define their 



128 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

proper objects. Expenditures which cannot bear the 
light of day ought not to be made. 

Your immediate predecessors considered this subject, 
and passed in one branch of the Legislature "An Act 
to secure the Publication of Election Expenses," as a 
first and proper step in this direction. I commend this 
matter to your favorable consideration, with the sugges- 
tion that this Act, to be effectual, must be more strin- 
gent, and that it should be followed by further 
legislation. 

THE BALLOT LAW. 

The advantages of our present ballot system are so 
great and universally acknowledged that it should be 
our aim to strengthen it by removing any just ground 
of criticism upon it. At present, either through mis- 
understanding or carelessness, the voter often fails to 
mark for the full number of candidates. In presiden- 
tial elections the voter will be required to mark sepa- 
rately the names of at least fourteen electors in order to 
give full effect to his vote for President. It is probable 
that in this case the evil of partial voting will be much 
increased, and may lead to an unintentional division of 
the electoral vote of the State. I suggest that the law 
be so amended that a single mark may be a vote for all 
the electors of a party, with an opportunity for the 
voter to scratch any name and to insert another. 
It is desirable to encourage the voter to exercise his 
full right of franchise, and to make it easy for him to 
do so, by any means that will not impair the efficiency 
of our ballot system. 

Further and more effectual notice of the names of 
candidates to be balloted for should be given to the 
voter before each election, — either by the distribution 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 129 

by the State of sample ballots, or in some other proper 
way. 

I would suggest also for your consideration the expe- 
diency of establishing some uniform and accurate system 
of counting and canvassing the votes, in order to avoid 
errors now common. Such a system could make the 
accuracy of the first count so certain as to obviate or 
restrict the necessity of any recount. 



PRECINCT OFFICERS. 

By section 75 of chapter 423 of the Acts of 1890, 
provision is expressly made for the representation 
among election officers of the voters who do not belong 
to either of the two leading political parties. Subse- 
quent clauses in the same section conflict with this 
provision, and defeat the evident intent of the Legis- 
lature. The matter deserves your attention and 
correction. 



THE LOBBY. 

One thing above all is necessary to make law the true 
expression of the people's will. Broadening and pro- 
tecting the suffrage, reforming and purifying elections, 
will fail of this purpose, unless the law-making power 
is protected from insidious and corrupting influences, 
which tend to control legislation against the people's 
interest, and to impair public confidence in its impar- 
tial enactment. 

There exists in this State, as in other States, an irre- 
sponsible body, known as the lobby, representing or 
preying upon special interests, which professes and 
undertakes for hire to influence or control legislation. 

Its work is wholly distinct and different from the 

9 



130 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

advocacy of one's cause in person, or by counsel or 
agent, which is the constitutional right of every one. 
It seeks often to control nominations and elections, and 
to subject the individual legislator, directly or indi- 
rectly, to secret and improper influences. It throws 
suspicion upon the honest, and temptation in the way 
of the dishonest. Professing power greater than it has, 
it frequently extorts money as the price of its silence 
or unnecessary assistance. It has initiated legislation 
attacking the interests of its clients, in order to be 
hired to defend those interests. It has caused the 
expenditure of large sums of money to obtain or defeat 
legislation. It cares little for the merits of a measure, 
or the means employed to make it successful. In my 
judgment, improper measures have, by its influence, 
been made law against the public interest, and just 
measures have been defeated. These criticisms are not 
based upon rumor or conjecture, but upon facts reported 
after most thorough investigations by your predeces- 
sors, who then denounced in unsparing terms the evil, 
and diligently sought a remedy. 

In 1887 they spoke of the methods thus employed as 
"a struggle for success without regard to means," caus- 
ing " a growing demoralization ; " and they added, " The 
venality and corruption which these practices encour- 
age, tending to defeat that right and justice which the 
State is bound freely and without price to bestow, are a 
reproach to a free people. " In the same- year, the Gov- 
ernor, vetoing a measure because of the lobby influence, 
described the lobby as "a pernicious system," and its 
methods as " a monstrously bad and corrupting prac- 
tice. " In 1890 a committee of investigation of the 
House reported, "It is a fact beyond denial that a 
body of professional lobbyists has for years formed 
part of the machinery of legislation, . . . and has been 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 131 

growing in numbers and influence," and again they 
denounced its methods. The evils of tlie lobby have 
become so flagrant and disgraceful that for the purity 
of legislation, the protection of the Legislature, and 
the fair name of our Commonwealth, they demand your 
serious consideration, and some stringent and radical 
remedy. This is a matter which especially concerns 
the Legislature, and therefore one which the Executive 
approaches with some embarrassment. Yet I feel I 
should be derelict in my duty if 1 failed to do all in my 
power to aid you in its solution. 

It is far easier to state the evil than to sujrjrest the 
remedy. Clearly it is impossible and improper to 
prevent a constituent or any other person from having 
the freest access to a legislator. This constitutional 
right guaranteed to the people gives opportunity to 
the lobby to do its work. Prevention by non- 
intercourse is therefore impossible. Prevention by 
publicity is possible, and I would suggest for your 
consideration whether a remedy may not be found in 
this direction, by making it easier than it now is pub- 
licly to investigate the methods used and money spent 
on pending legislation ; and also, by giving power to 
some proper officer, before a measure finally becomes 
law, to demand under oath a full and detailed state- 
ment as to these matters. The fear of publicity, and 
through it of defeat, may stop improper practices by 
making them woi'se than useless. Your immediate 
predecessors, with an earnest desire to cure the evil, 
and believing in the remedy of publicity, passed an Act 
requiring all counsel and agents employed by any 
special interest on matters pending before the Legisla- 
ture to be registered, and a statement under oath of all 
expenses incurred to be made within thirty days after 
the adjournment of the Legislature. I believe that 



132 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

good v.ill come from tliis Act, if fairly and thoroughly 
enforced, bnt that it falls short of being a sufficient 
remedy. It makes public the names of all persons 
employed, but not the acts of the lobbyist. It makes 
pu]>iic the expenses incurred, but too late to affect the 
legislation for which they were incurred. 

I ask you also to consider whether something cannot 
be done to relieve the Loo:islature of much work that 
seems to be onerous and unnecessary, to prolong its 
sessions, and to give life and strength to the lobby. 
Recent amendments to your rules have been made, I 
am informed, with this purpose. You may deem it 
wise to make further provision for an earlier introduc- 
tion of business, and for its more systematic conduct. 
Any steps which would tend to reduce suggested legis- 
lation to a specific form, and to give the fullest possi- 
ble notice to the public of the exact status of any matter 
pending, would, I am confident, restrict the employ- 
ment of the lobby. If additional clerical or expert 
assistance is required for this purpose, the State can 
well afford to pay for it. 

RELIEF FROM SPECIAL LEGISLATION. 

Asa further and more fundamental remedy, I submit 
for your consideration whether much of the special 
legislation which makes a large proportion of the busi- 
ness of every session cannot be avoided by the passage 
of general laws or by other means. The Constitutions 
of several States prohibit all special laws. In this 
State constant applications for charters for banks, 
railroads, insurance companies, and other corporations, 
which involved the expenditure of large sums of money 
and the employment of the lol)by, led to the passage of 
general laws on these and other subjects, which left 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 133 

them, under proper limitations, to be settled as busi- 
ness questions, and at once relieved the Legislature of 
much disagreeable and onerous work. There seems 
to be a necessity for further legislation in the same 
direction. A general law in reference to public water 
supplies would prevent the frequent and necessary, but 
often conflicting applications on this subject to the 
Legislature by cities and towns, and provide for its 
broad and just treatment. The applications of corpora- 
tions for further powers and privileges might well be 
covered by general laws, which, with careful restric- 
tions protecting the rights of the public, might give 
to some public authority jurisdiction over such 
applicatioQS. 

Much special legislation is enacted in behalf of cities 
and towns, and is made necessary by their limited 
powers. Twenty-three cities and forty-one towns were 
the subjects of special Acts at the last Legislature. In 
my opinion, greater powers might be given to cities and 
towns with safety and advantage, not only as a relief 
to the Legislature, but as a just and proper extension of 
local self-government. I therefore commend to your 
consideration the subject of enlarging their powers by 
general laws, especially in matters of taxation, fran- 
chises, municipal control of municipal work, and 
ownership of the instrumentalities for its performance. 
The exercise of such powers might well be left as a 
question of expediency for each community to deter- 
mine for itself. 

CONTROL OF MUNICIPAL FRANCHISES. 

Upon what terms and conditions a city or town shall 
grant franchises for the use of its public highways, and 
what control it shall have over such franchises when 



134 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

granted, are questions of public importance which have 
been much discussed, and are worthy of your serious 
consideration. On the one hand, it is urged that special 
privileges in the public highways, distinct from their 
public use, ought to be paid for, either by a gross sum 
or a fixed rental ; on the other hand, it is said that such 
payment, exacted from a corporation whose business is 
solely with the public, only adds an expense which the 
public finally pay, either in higher charges or poorer 
service. Last year an Act, compelling the sale by 
auction of such franchises in the future, was passed by 
the House. In my judgment each community is best 
fitted, has the right, and ought to have the power, to 
determine this question for itself. 1 therefore suggest 
for your consideration the expediency of giving to cities 
and towns, with such limitations as you deem neces- 
sary, the power of selling such franchises in the future, 
and of fixing the terms and conditions on which they 
shall be granted. In this and all matters of local 
administration let us guard jealously the right of local 
self-government, preserve it when possible, and restore 
it where necessary. 



GENERAL MUNICIPAL LAW. 

The constant demand by our cities for charter 
amendments, the apparent necessity for enlarging their 
powers, the number of towns that soon will ask for 
municipal charters, the wisdom of having them uniform 
and comprehensive, suggest the expediency of framing 
a general municipal law, under which future cities shall 
be incorporated, and which can be adopted by present 
cities if they see fit. Under it towns, upon having the 
required and ascertained qualifications, might after a 
proper vote at once organize a municipal government. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 135 

Where different local circumstances may require differ- 
ent powers or officers, discretionary power can be given 
by the law. If the time and research necessary for 
framing such a law make it impracticable for your con- 
sideration, you may deem it expedient to have the 
matter made the subject of a thorough and independent 
investigation by able and experienced men. Such an 
investigation might at least make valuable suggestions 
on the important and difficult subject of the best form 
of proper municipal government, 

RAILROAD PASSES. 

For many years, T am informed, it has been the 
custom for the railroad corporations of this State to 
tender free passes over their respective roads to mem- 
bers of the Legislature. Even if this is done without 
purpose to create an obligation, the custom is open to 
just criticism. Measures in which these corporations 
are interested are certain to come before the Legisla- 
ture. Its action ought to be free, not only from any 
obligation, conscious or unconscious, but even from a 
suspicion of such obligation, that the public may have 
full confidence in its impartiality. The ])ay now 
allowed to a member of the Legislature for his services 
makes it unjust to put upon him any further expense. 
I believe the giving of such passes ought either to be 
forbidden or compelled by law, and that any expense 
involved should be borne by the State. This may be 
done by a fair and proper mileage system, which seems, 
however, to require an amendment to the Constitution, 
mileage being by it limited to "travelling to the 
General Assembly and returning home once in every 
session, and no more ; " or you may deem it wise for the 
State to purchase and give such passes ; or, if within 



136 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

its power, to require the railroad corporations to give 
them. They could hardly object to a law which should 
compel them to do only what tliey now do voluntarily. 

Another custom of the same character, and open to the 
same criticism, I call to your attention, — the entertain- 
ment, often with profuse hospitality, of committees or 
of other members on behalf of some special interest 
having legislation pending. Expenses of this nature, 
properly incurred, ought, in my judgment, to be borne 
by the State rather than by the special interest, which 
may thereby gain some advantage. The only remedy 
seems to be an absolute prohibition of such entertain- 
ment. 

ADMINISTRATIVE BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS. 

The suggestions I have made in reference to the 
suffrage, elections, and legislation have been with a 
desire and hope that, if they meet your approval, they 
will tend to make our government more thoroughly 
representative, its laws a truer expression of the 
people's will, and its power more directly within their 
control. With the same purpose, I commend to your 
consideration its system of administrative and execu- 
tive work. With much truth, Massachusetts has been 
described as a commissi on-iroverned State. Its great 
Departments of Education, Health, Charities, Prisons, 
Reform Schools, Almshouse and Workhouse, Agricul- 
ture, Railroads, Insurance, Fisheries, Harbors and 
Lands, Savings-Banks, and others, are governed by 
independent boards practically beyond the control of 
the people. Besides these there are commissions on 
Gas, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Civil Service, Arbitration, 
Cattle, Wrecks, Pilots, State Aid, and others for 
special and temporary purposes. Almost without 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 137 

exception, the members of these boards are appointed 
by the Governor, but only with the advice and consent 
of nine other men. Their tenure of office is usually 
for a term of several years, often without power of 
removal by any one, sometimes subject to removal for 
cause or otherwise by the Governor, with the same con- 
sent. The latter power in effect necessitates a trial 
upon formal charges, which seldom would be made 
or could be proved, except for flagrant malfeasance 
in office. The subordinate officials are generally 
appointed by the boards. These boards and their 
work are practically beyond the control of the people, 
or of any one immediately responsible to them, except 
in the limited power of the Governor occasionally to 
appoint a single member. The people of the State 
miglit have a most decided opinion about the manage- 
ment and work of these departments, and give emphatic 
expression to that opinion, and yet be unable to control 
their action. The system gives great power without 
proper responsibility, and tends to remove the people's 
government from the people's control. The head of 
the Executive Departments of the State, elected by the 
people and directly responsible to them, has but little 
power and few duties, except social and perfunctory. 
I make this criticism on the system with full knowledge 
that, as a rule, the work of these boards has been 
excellent, and their members have been faithful public 
servants. But Massachusetts may not always be so for- 
tunate. Is it not far safer to rely upon a sound system 
than on the chance that a defective system may be made 
to work well by good officials ? 1 submit that the first 
essential of sound administration is to couple power 
with responsibility, by making it subject to the people's 
control. Speaking of this necessity, one of the ablest 
and most experienced public officials, Mr. Scth Low, 



138 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

has said, " Power without responsibility is always dan- 
gerous; but power with res})oiisibility to a constituency 
which can readily call it to account, is not dangerous. 
It is the first requisite of efficient administration." 

To accomplish this, I suggest for your favorable 
consideration, fiy-st., whether boards and commissions, 
whose work is wholly executive, ought not to be depart- 
ments of State, each with a single responsible head; 
second, whether power of removal of their members, for 
cause stated, ought not to be given to the Governor as 
the chief executive, thereby compelling him to exercise 
a supervision of their work, and making him, and so 
making them, responsible to the people for its adminis- 
tration. Such power has been given to the mayor of 
our largest city, as the best and safest system of muni- 
cipal administration. Can it not be safel}^ intrusted to 
the Governor of the Commonwealth ? It makes any 
man conservative ; its selfish use for patronage only is 
fortunately sure to be both disagreeable and destructive. 

EDUCATION. 

From the earliest days, Massachusetts has generously 
provided for the education of her children, and main- 
tained with jealous care her public-school system. 
She has wisely deemed it essential to the preservation 
of her institutions and our liberties, and so the concern 
of all her citizens. It is certainly our desire, and 
plainly our duty, not only to uphold this system in its 
full vigor, l)ut also to provide for its progressive devel- 
opment. Us special aim should be to furnish an 
education beneficial to the many, rather than excep- 
tional privileges to the few; to equalize for all, as far 
as practicable, the opportunity for education, by provid- 
ing ampler mc^nns in many ])laccs now poorly circum- 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 139 

stanced, and thus placed at a oTeat comparative 
disadvantage ; to have its course of study practical, 
adapted to the condition and occupations of our people, 
recognizing such new methods and courses of instruc- 
tion as, after thorough trial, have proved to be useful 
educationally, and of immediate benefit in the work of 
later life ; and to keep its control clear of any spirit of 
intolerance, which cannot but weaken its influence and 
limit its work. 

In my judgment, industrial education and manual 
training have been so successful where tried, and are 
of such practical benefit, that I recommend to your 
favorable consideration their adoption as part of the 
system of instruction in our public schools, at least in 
some communities. At present a large proportion of 
the children who enter the grammar schools leave before 
graduation. A still larger proportion do not enter the 
high school, and comparatively few graduate from it. 
In Boston, I am informed, only about sixteen per cent 
of the children w^ho enter the grammar schools reach 
the high school, and only about five per cent graduate. 
This is due, no doubt, to the necessity of beginning 
early to earn a livelihood, or to get the special experi- 
ence and instruction necessary for this purpose. If such 
instruction could be had in the public schools in con- 
nection with other studies, many children would remain 
longer. It might then be expedient to increase the 
maximum age for compulsory attendance at school, and 
more easy to limit still further the employment of chil- 
dren in manufacturing and other establishments. 

There exist in this State a great difference and ine- 
quality in the character and efficiency of the public 
schools in different places ; also in the amount spent 
upon them for each pupil, and in the burden of taxa- 
tion for such expenditure. Almost invariably the 



140 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

burden is heaviest where the amount raised and spent 
is least, — due to the vast difference in the wealth 
and valuation of respective places. In 1889 the average 
rate of taxation throughout the State for all purposes 
was '"j'll. 68, and for school purposes (estimating it at 
25 per cent of the total tax), $3.67 per thousand, or 
an amount equal to about -120 for each child between 
the ages of five and fifteen. Yet in different places 
there was an endless variety in rate, differing, for 
example, from 6-4 cents per thousand in Manchester, 
and f!l.06 in Nahant, and $2.28 in Milton, to $7.48 in 
Holbrook, $8.91 in Wellfleet, and 810.42 in Palmer. 
Yet the amount spent for each child in the first-named 
places was nearly twice as much as in the last, and 
many times as much as in some towns. Necessarily 
there is a corresponding difference in their educational 
advantages. The result is a great inequality in the 
public education of children in the State, and a marked 
contrast in such education between the wealthy towns 
with few children, and the poor toAvns with many 
children. 

How far this condition ought to be and can be reme- 
died by legislation is a matter worthy of your serious 
consideration. The State has always recognized the 
education of her children as a matter of State concern. 
She has compelled the establishment of public schools 
of various grades, prescribed the courses of study, 
enforced the attendance of the children, exercised State 
supervision over the public schools, api)ropriated money 
in various ways to assist in their maintenance, and 
required an educational qualification for the franchise. 
This she has done while properly recognizing the right 
of each locality to control the expenditure of its school 
money, and the right of every parent to determine what 
school his children shall attend. Her interference is 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 141 

based upon the just assumption that every citizen is 
interested in the proper education of all her children, 
and that such education is necessary for her own safety 
and prosperit}'. I ask you to consider whether she 
cannot properly go further, and not only provide for the 
education of all, but strive for the equal education of 
all to a certain standard, and whether the richer 
localities ought not to contribute something for the 
public schools of the poorer, upon the ground that the 
interest of every locality in public education is not 
limited to the education of its own children. Such 
action would do much to equalize educational advan- 
tages throughout the State, generally improve the con- 
dition of the public schools, do something to correct the 
gross inequality in general taxation that now exists 
between different places, and make every taxpayer 
bear a fairer proportion of the cost of educating all 
the children in the State. 



TAXATION. 

The inequality of the burdens of taxation in this 
State has been known and felt for years, but no adequate 
remedy for it has yet been found and applied. A sub- 
ject so complicated in its details and important in its 
bearings requires most thorough investigation as pre- 
liminary to legislative action. I have been unable yet 
to make investigation sufficiently thorough to warrant 
me in making suggestions for your consideration, except 
to commend for your favorable action the recommenda- 
tion of my immediate predecessor, "of levying, as a 
duty or excise upon the settlement of estates, a tax 
upon legacies and successions," with proper exemptions 
and limitations. 



142 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 



LABOR LEGISLATION. 

Though Massachusetts has led the States of the Union 
in this field for many years, she has not reached the 
limit of wise and progressive labor legislation. Her 
course in the past has seemed too slow and conservative 
to some, too radical to others, but has been approved 
by the great mass of her citizens, and amply justified 
by results. I doubt not it commends itself to your 
judgment, and will be continued with your approval; 
and that you will give to all labor legislation that 
discriminating attention which neither accepts every- 
thing because asked for in the name of labor, nor rejects 
everything because opposed in the name of capital. 

I recommend to your favorable consideration the 
reduction of the hours of labor of women and children 
employed in factories and workshops. Such a law 
passed the last House of Representatives, and was 
barely defeated in the Senate. In England, where it 
is often claimed that the condition of the laboring 
classes is deplorable, the hours of such labor have long 
been limited by law to fifty-six a week. "While with us 
the problem is more complicated, because each State 
has its own legislation, and no uniform statutoiy regu- 
lation of hours for the whole nation is possible under 
the Constitution, yet it is not desirable to stand still 
because there are obstacles in the way of progress. Our 
very dependence upon manufactures requiring skilled 
labor should lead us to adopt a liberal policy in re- 
spect to the hours and conditions of toil, — one which 
will promote the welfare and increase the utility of our 
working population. 

While a general reduction in the hours of labor 
must be brought about mainly by the organized action 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 143 

of employees, it is urged, and I believe with justice, 
that the State should lend its co-operation and the 
weight of its example in this direction. I therefore 
commend to your careful consideration the question 
whether tlie time has come to reduce still further the 
hours of labor of public employees engaged in manual 
work. 

A bill to prohibit the imposition of fines or deduc- 
tions of wages upon factory operatives employed at 
weaving has been considered by the Legislature for 
a number of years, and failed to pass last year by a 
single vote in the Senate. While legislation on this 
subject is not free from difficulties, it is desirable that 
the constant friction which this practice causes should 
be removed by any practicable means. In many fac- 
tories this practice does not exist, so it cannot be an 
absolute necessity. I trust that you may find some 
satisfactory solution of the tiuestion. 

Three years ago the Employers' Liability Act was 
passed. It has, I believe, been just to the employers, 
while it has provided relief for the families of many 
workmen injured or killed in the performance of their 
duty. By a recent decision of the Supreme Judicial 
Court, the operation of this Act, if death ensues, has 
been limited to cases where death was instantaneous or 
without conscious suffering. The wording of this Act 
no doubt fill Is to express tlie real purpose of the Legis- 
lature. It is manifestly unjust that widows and 
orphans, otherwise entitled to relief under this Act, 
should be deprived of it merely because there was an 
interval of conscious life after the fatal injury was 
received. I recommend that the Act be restored to its 
full beneficent purpose by a suitable amendment. Even 
when so amended it is not so broad in its scope as the 
law which has long been in force in England. 



14-i INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

The railroad employees in this State feel a just griev- 
ance that the law passed in 1884, which requires that 
freight-cars be provided with automatic couplers, and 
which was intended to give such emplo3'ees a long- 
needed protection, has failed of its purpose. The diffi- 
culty seems to be in the fact that a large proportion of 
freight-cars used here come from other States, and 
National legislation is therefore necessary. I strongly 
recommend that you petition Congress to take action, 
and consider whether any further steps can be taken 
by you for the proper protection of railroad employees 
against the dangers to which they are exposed. 



LIQUOR LEGISLATION. 

I call to your attention the well-known variety of 
opinion as to the meaning of the statute provision 
which forbids the keeping of a public bar, and the utter 
lack of agreement in its construction and enforcement. 
It is inconsistent with sound public policy that a pro- 
vision of law which is the same for the whole Common- 
wealth should be open to these objections. In my 
judgment, this provision, as construed and enforced in 
the city of Boston, does not tend to promote temper- 
ance, is not sustained by public opinion, and ought to 
be corrected. 



RE-APPORTIONMENT OF THE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS. 

The passage by Congress of a bill re-apportioning 
representatives in the House of Representatives, upon 
the basis of the Census of 1890, which now seems 
probable, will make it your duty to divide the Common- 
wealth into new Congressional Districts. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 145 

The present political situation and division of 
political power in this State make this year peculiarly 
favorable for a fair and honest treatment of this 
question. 

I strongly recommend the passage at the present 
session of such a re-districting bill, establishing dis- 
tricts of proper geographical shape and contiguous ter- 
ritory, and of such political complexion as to give to 
each political party, as nearly as possible, the repre- 
sentation to which its numbers entitle it. 

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS. 

Greater uniformity in the legislation of the several 
States upon many subjects, especially upon marriage 
and divorce, is very desirable, and this requires concert 
of action between the States. To this end New York 
has appointed a commission, serving without compen- 
sation, and, through this commission, requests like 
action by this State, which request I commend to your 
favorable consideration. 

A thorough reform in our system of land transfer 
and registration, upon the lines of legislation which 
has long been successful in other countries, and 
intended to make it safer, cheaper, and easier, will, I 
am informed, be called to your attention. It deserves 
your serious consideration. 

At an early day I shall submit for your considera- 
tion such recommendations and suggestions of the 
departments as seem to be of sufficient importance to 
be called specially to your attention. 

Senators and Rejjresentatives,' — There is an oppor- 
tunity for us, by wise and progressive legislation, to 
meet the just demands of the people and merit their 

10 



14:6 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1891. 

confidence, to strengthen the institutions of our beloved 
Commonwealth, and to add something to her glory and 
prosperity. Such inspiring work should lift us above 
party strife, encourage mutual respect and confidence, 
and insure cordial co-operation in the fearless and un- 
selfish discharge of our respective duties. Then may 
the law be the free and true expression of the people's 
will, and only for their interest. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

TO THE LEGISLATURE, JAN. 7, 1892. 

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: 

PROFOUNDLY grateful to the people of the Com- 
monwealth for the renewed confidence which has 
again entrusted me with important public duties, I 
enter upon their discharge by submitting to 3'ou such 
suggestions and recommendations as seem to merit your 
consideration and action. 

This privilege of addressing the Legislature, accorded 
the Governor by long-established custom, is not, in my 
judgment, best used in a perfunctory statement of the 
recommendations of the various departments of the 
Commonwealth, all of which are set forth fully in their 
reports to you. I believe it better to make this the 
occasion for a broader treatment of public questions, 
for giving expression to the people's wishes and wants, 
and for suggestion to the Legislature, and through it to 
the public, of any policy or reform which seems to the 
Governor wise and necessary, and for which he is ready 
to assume responsibility. Department recommenda- 
tions can be called to your attention in a later message, 
if necessary, with such indorsement or criticism as they 
suggest. This course separates more clearly the views 
of the Executive and of the departments, and gives to 
both greater emphasis and responsibility. It requires 
the chosen representative of the people, as his first 
duty, to submit to you their opinion, indicated by their 



148 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

votes, upon such public matters within your jurisdiction 
as demand your attention. So will elections mean a 
choice between principles and measures, rather than 
between men. 

The close dependence of the people upon their State 
government, the great and immediate control it exer- 
cises over them and their liberty, property, and welfare, 
make the duty imperative of keeping that government 
efficient and responsible in its work, and of adopting 
any changes or reforms necessary to this end. With 
the tendency each year to increase its duties and to 
multiply its subjects, and thus to enlarge its power 
over public and individual interests, the greater is the 
necessity that this power should be restrained by such 
official responsibility as will keep it well within the 
control of the people, and make every administrative 
officer answerable to them. "The first requisite of 
efficient administration," says an experienced writer, 
" is power, with responsibility to a constituency which 
can readily call it to account." Machinery of govern- 
ment which worked easily and well when its duties 
were comparatively few and simple, may be too cumber- 
some to meet its many and complicated duties of later 
days, and entirely inadequate to bring the government, 
now more and more felt by the people, within their 
control. Faithful and efficient service may make a 
bad system work well, or mitigate its lack of responsi- 
bility ; but sound administration cannot permanently 
be had under such conditions, nor until the system itself 
is changed and corrected. 

In my judgment, the time has come when the atten- 
tion of the Legislature ought to be directed to the 
executive branch of our government, to the great 
increase of its duties, the lack of uniformity or system 
in the organization created for their discharge, and 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 149 

its entire absence of responsibility, except in the high 
character and conscientious service of officials in its 
various departments. My criticism is not of officials, 
but of a system ; and the test of that system is not the 
faithful work which they have done, but the unfaithful 
work others might do without adequate responsibility 
to call them to account. If danger lurks in the system, 
if it can permit arbitrary acts without control, mis- 
conduct without correction, or official administration 
without responsibility, it is wrong. 

A year ago in my inaugural address I briefly consid- 
ered this subject. The experience of the year has 
strengthened my convictions upon the views and recom- 
mendations then expressed. As the subject has been 
constantly before the people in the mean time by 
executive action, debate in the Legislature, and discus- 
sion through the Press and in the last political cam- 
paign, and the people may fairly be considered to have 
formed and expressed their opinion upon it, I deem it 
my first duty to urge upon you a thorough examination 
of our methods of executive and administrative work, 
and the adoption of such changes as will bring into it 
complete responsibility to the people, and will simplify 
machinery at present complex, without system or 
uniformity. 

A brief examination of the gradual but large growth 
of executive work and executive offices in the more than 
one hundred years of our constitutional government, is 
necessary for an intelligent consideration of this matter. 
For some years after the adoption of our constitution, 
in 1780, there were few administrative officers to be 
appointed or supervised by the Governor. While the 
Constitution definitely fixed the appointment and tenure 
of judicial and military officers, it left to the Legisla- 
ture the power "to provide by fixed laws for the naming 



150 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

and settling all civil officers within the Commonwealth, 
the election and constitution of whom are not in this 
form of government otlierwise provided for, and to set 
forth the several duties, powers, and limits of the 
several civil and military officers of the Common- 
wealth. " It was not then foreseen, nor has it been at 
any time since, how great would be the growth of exec- 
utive work, and how varied and intricate the subjects 
of public and private interest with which it would deal. 
Consequently, neither by the Constitution nor by any 
legislative Act has there been established any uniform 
system, but as the exigency of the moment demanded, 
an office has been created, apparently without much 
thought of its relation to the executive machinery 
already or thereafter to be established. As in the 
multiplicity of laws it becomes imperative at last to 
codify and systematize them, so in the multiplicity of 
offices the same necessity may exist. 

The growth of the Commonwealth, the creation and 
increase of her penal, reformatory, and charitable 
institutions, and of new subjects of public supervision 
or control, have compelled the Legislature, under the 
authority conferred upon it, to establish numerous 
offices and departments as the necessary machinery for 
the administration of this work. Most of these are of 
comparatively recent date, created with little regard 
to uniformity of government or direct responsibility. 
There are to-day in the executive department of the 
Commonwealth over three hundred officers, commis- 
sioners, and trustees, not including clerks and other 
subordinate officers, participating by statute authority 
in the administration of our government. There arc 
over twenty- five State commissions (some, however, not 
purely executive), and more than one hundred trustees 
of public institutions. Whether this number can be 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 151 

reduced by abolition or consolidation of offices has been 
considered by a special committee of the last Legis- 
lature, who will submit to you the result of its 
investigation. 

In my judgment that question is rather one of detail 
than of principle, and by no means as important as the 
question of uniformity and responsibility in the admin- 
istration of these public trusts. At present there is 
neither. The tenure of some commissioners and trus- 
tees is three years ; of others, five ; of others, seven ; and 
of one board, eight. This tenure is fixed by law, and 
gives the occupant a right to hold the office for its full 
term, in the absence of express statute provision for 
removal. In many of the statutes there is no such provi- 
sion, and where it exists there is no uniformity. Mem- 
bers of four commissions and the Medical Examiners 
can be removed for sufficient cause by the Governor 
with the consent of the Council; members of eleven 
commissions can be removed with or without cause by 
the Governor, but only with the same consent. Only 
eight officers, outside of the District Police, can be 
removed by the Governor alone, upon his own respon- 
sibility. That is the extent of his effective and respon- 
sible executive control. Five boards of trustees are 
removable "for sufficient cause," but without any 
provision as to who shall exercise this power. Of the 
remaining administrative boards and officers appointed 
for a fixed term, including the Boards of Lunacy and 
Charity, of Health, of Education, of Prisons, the State 
members of the Board of Agriculture, and other officers 
holding important public trusts, there is no power of 
removal in any body, except by the cumbrous machinery 
of impeachment. More than one hundred and twenty 
important executive officers are thus, during a tenure 
of office varying from three to eight years, beyond the 



152 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERXOR, 1892. 

reach and control of any executive power. All of these 
officers perform public duties, expend public money, and 
administer public trusts. In some way they should be 
made responsible to the people; otherwise there is 
danger of friction and conflict. Arbitrary acts cannot 
be controlled, misconduct cannot be punished, nor can 
any one be held directly and properly responsible for 
official action. 

As an illustration of our irresponsible system, I 
again call the attention of the Legislature to our 
method of prison management. At present the warden 
in charge of the prison has no power over his principal 
subordinates, either in their appointment or removal, 
except with the concurrence of the Prison Commis- 
sioners, with an appeal to the Governor and Council in 
case of conflict; the commissioners in charge of the 
institution have no power over the appointment or 
removal of the warden; and neither the Governor nor 
any one else has any power over the commissioners. 
In case of mismanagement, inefficiency, or trouble and 
insubordination within the prison, such as have occurred 
in times past, where lies the responsibility or the 
remedy ? In my judgment, the warden should be given 
power over his subordinate officials, the Prison Com- 
missioners power over him, and the Governor power 
over them ; and for its exercise he should answer to 
the people. A bill to this effect was reported to the 
last Legislature by one of its committees. In the 
House it was amended by a provision that the power of 
the Governor should be exercised only with the consent 
of the Council, thus destroying the most important 
link in the chain of responsibility, and the one which 
brought this executive power within the control of the 
people, and its exercise under responsibility to them. 
The bill as amended was properly defeated in the Senate. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 153 

Suppose that some administrative board, within its 
limited authority in part to administer the people's 
government, should knowingly adopt a policy against 
the wish of the people, or against their will as deliber- 
ately expressed through their Legislature, — are the 
people to have no control over such board or its action ? 
Is their government to this extent to be beyond their 
reach ? 

All must agree that the safe and democratic form of 
government is to make these administrative officers in 
some way responsible to the people. This is in accord 
with the constitutional intent, as expressed in the 
Declaration of Rights, that, "All power residing orig- 
inally in the people, and being derived from them, the 
several magistrates and officers of government, vested 
with authority, whether legislative, executive, or 
judicial, are their substitutes and agents, and are at 
all times accountable to them," Again it says: "In 
order to prevent those who are vested with authority 
from becoming oppressors, the people have a right, at 
such periods and in such manner as they shall estab- 
lish by their frame of government, to cause their public 
officers to return to private life, and to fill up vacant 
places by certain and regular elections and appoint- 
ments." In giving to the Legislature authority to 
create administrative offices, and to fix their tenure, 
duties, and powers, the Constitution contemplated that 
such authority would be exercised with due observance 
of its injunctions to make such officers accountable to 
the people, and to preserve to the people their power 
over them. 

How can this best be done ? It is not practicable 
to elect them. They must be appointed ; and, to be 
responsible to the people, they should be under the 
control of the elected servants of the people. They 



154 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

cannot be made responsible directly to the Legislature, 
for this is expressly forbidden by the Constitution. 
The Legislature which created the office can abolish 
it; but responsibility dependent upon such remedy 
involves destruction of the administrative machinery 
whenever a particular administrator is inefficient or 
unfaithful. There remains only its power of impeach- 
ment, restricted to cases of "misconduct and mal- 
administration in office." This involves trial and 
conviction upon formal charges, and requires so much 
time and effort that it cannot be an effective and 
' constant means of making administrators responsible 
to the people. 

The power of removal, as a necessity for responsible 
control, must then be vested in the executive depart- 
ment; and I submit that it can best be vested in the 
head of that department. Our Constitution, in creating 
his office, declared that he " shall be a supreme execu- 
tive magistrate;" and, further, "that he should in 
all cases act with freedom for the benefit of the public." 
It nowhere limits his executive supervision of executive 
work, nor suggests that his direct and immediate 
responsibility to the people should be lessened by stat- 
utory creation of departments, boards, and offices 
beyond his control. If they are not within his control, 
they are beyond that of the people. 

Provisions much like ours in the Constitution of 
Pennsylvania have been construed by her Supreme 
Court as vesting in the Governor the absolute power 
of removal. In its decision the court says: "The 
powers of the Governor are never suspended. He is at 
all times authorized to exercise ' the supreme executive 
power.' The fact that an officer may be removed by 
the dilatory process of impeachment creates no argu- 
ment against the summary power of removal by the 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 155 

Governor. Crime, imbecility, or gross neglect of duty 
may demand that an officer shall be removed at once. 
The power to protect the people of the Commonwealth 
by prompt action is wisely given to the Governor. In 
giving construction to the Constitution, we cannot 
assume that he will abuse that high trust. " ' 

Our Constitution, framed and adopted in the midst 
of war, when military powers were uppermost in the 
minds of the people, and remaining unchanged in this 
respect through wars and rebellions within and without 
the Commonwealth, gives to the Governor at such 
times power almost autocratic. The exercise of this 
power by a Governor accountable to the people has been 
ever — but especially during the Civil War, by the 
great Andrew — efficient, responsible, and to their 
entire satisfaction. It is hardly conceivable that the 
Constitution intended that the Governor, thus trusted 
with great responsibility and power in time of danger, 
should in civil administration have but little power, 
and be in name only the "supreme executive magis- 
trate." I think the framers of the Constitution meant 
that the Governor should be in fact the chief magistrate, 
and as such should have authority commensurate with 
his responsibility ; and this not for the purpose of 
giving him power, but of imposing upon him responsi- 
bility, and so retaining power in the people. To them 
he is directly responsible for the exercise of his power, 
and he hardly begins his duties before he is called 
upon to account to them. If he cannot justify his acts, 
he deserves and receives their condemnation. 

The Council has its function in the executive govern- 
ment. The Constitution created it "for advising the 
Governor," not for tying his hands, not for dictating 
his appointments, nor for exercising co-ordinate and 

1 Lane v. Commonwealth, 103 Pa. St. 481. 



156 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

equal power with him. It creates, not ten, but one 
"supreme executive magistrate." The jurisdiction of 
the Council was fully and ably discussed in the Consti- 
tutional Convention of 1853. No one in that elaborate 
debate claimed as part of its power the right to advise 
in cases of removals from office. Its only powers, as 
there stated and claimed, were to advise and consent 
to appointments, to advise in cases of pardon, to audit 
accounts, and to act as the supreme returning board in 
the election of State officers. These powers a majority 
of the Convention deemed of sufficient importance to 
justify the continued existence of the Council. 

In appointments to office there may well be a con- 
firming power. It is approved by an experience of 
more than a century in National and State government; 
it affords an opportunity to correct mistakes, and to 
defeat any improper or personal influences governing 
an appointment; but it still leaves to the Executive a 
field for selection practically unlimited. If not abused 
and made a power to dictate, it does not infringe upon 
executive responsibility. Whether this power can bet- 
ter be exercised by the Senate, as in the National 
government and in many States, or by the Council, 
docs not seem to me of the greatest importance; nor 
does the question whether the Council itself shall 
remain or be abolished, although in but three of our 
forty-four States is there an elected executive Council. 
But whether power to remove shall be shared by the 
Council is of great importance, and vitally affects 
executive responsibility. This power is necessary for 
proper executive control. If not intrusted to one 
alone, either its efficiency is lost, or greatly impaired 
by divided responsibility. Such divided responsibility, 
or no responsibility, is the system of executive manage- 
ment established in this Commonwealth wholly by stat- 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 157 

ute law, mostly of recent enactment. Experience has 
shown as practical results of such a system — 

First. That neither the Governor nor the people 

through him have any adequate power over the execu- 

■ tive departments, of which he is the head, but his power 

is practically limited to suggestions, advice, and 

appointments to fill vacancies. 

Second. That over many of the departments and 
executive offices there is no power of control in any 
one. 

Third. That the power of removal, and so of control, 
usually requires for its exercise a formal trial upon 
specific charges, and proof of absolute malfeasance in 
office. 

Fourth. That an officer of an important public 
department, accused of official misconduct which, in 
the opinion of the Governor, requires his removal, may 
remain in office without the confidence and against the 
will of his executive chief. 

Fifth. That a member of an important commission 
may hold his office indefinitely after his term has 
expired, without appointment and without the approval 
of the Governor. 

Sixth. That nominees of the Governor, beyond criti- 
cism and objection, may be refused confirmation for 
the sole and declared purpose of holding in office men 
whose term of office has expired. 

Seventh. That with the present limitations upon the 
power of removal, the power to confirm can always be 
used for this purpose, and successfully in every case of 
an expired term. 

I state these results of our present system, not to 
discuss here executive action in any particular case, but 
because I believe all can agree, whatever their opinion 
in such case, that a system which can produce these 



158 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

results is without proper responsibility, and ought to 
be so changed as to give to the Chief Executive power 
that shall fix upon him full executive responsibility. 

I am confirmed in this opinion by the established 
and nearly unbroken practice in the National Govern- 
ment for more than a century, by the full recognition 
of this principle in modern municipal government, by 
its adoption in the executive system of other States, and 
by its indorsement alike by the student of government 
and by those who have had practical experience in 
its administration. The Constitution of the United 
States, vesting in the President the executive power, 
gives to him the power of appointment "by and with 
the advice and consent " of the Senate, and is silent as 
to the power of removal. The same ])hrase and the 
same silence are found in the Constitution of our 
Commonwealth. The first Congress, in establishing 
executive departments, expressly conferred the power 
of removal upon the President. In the debate upon 
that question, Madison, one of the framers and 
expounders of the National Constitution, declared its 
purpose as follows : " It is evidently the intention of 
the Constitution that the first magistrate should be 
responsible for the executive department. So far, 
therefore, as we do not make the officers who are to 
aid him in the duties of that department responsible to 
him, he is not responsible to his country." The Act 
conferring this power was carried in the Senate by the 
casting vote of Vice-President Adams, who gave at 
length his reasons for his vote. Speaking of these, 
his grandson, Charles Francis Adams, writes: "These 
reasons were not committed to paper, and can, there- 
fore, never be known; but in their soundness it is 
certain that he never had the shadow of a doubt. His 
decision settled the question of the constitutional 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 159 

/ 

power in favor of the President, and consequently 
established the practice for the country which has 
continued down to this day. " He adds : " All have 
agreed that no single act of the first Congress has been 
attended with more important effects upon the working 
of every part of the government." 

The policy thus established remained unchanged 
down to 1867, and gave to the President unlimited 
power, directly or indirectly, to remove all subordinate 
officers, now numbering more than one hundred and 
twenty thousand. In that year, owing to a conflict 
between the President and Congress, an attempt was 
made to restrict his power by the passage of an Act of 
doubtful constitutionality, requiring the consent of the 
Senate to removals from office. That Act was greatly 
modified during the next Administration, and was 
finally repealed in 1887, after it had long ceased to 
have any active operation. I do not believe that the 
people would now permit the hands of their President 
to be tied, and executive responsibility to be divided 
and lost between him and the Senate. 

The same principle has been successfully applied to 
municipal government, and is strongly indorsed by 
municipal administrators. I have already quoted the 
well-known views of ex-Mayor Low, of Brooklyn, to this 
effect. Equally emphatic is the opinion of ex-Mayor 
Hart, of Boston, who says, in a recent publication : 
" It is not certain that the mayor should have absolute 
power of appointing his subordinates or any other public 
officers. The power of removal should be vested in the 
mayor." An able commission, appointed in Pennsyl- 
vania in 1878 to devise a plan for city government, 
reporting in favor of this principle, said: "It is self- 
evident that the affairs of government cannot be well 
conducted unless there is an executive head upon whom 



IGO INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

responsibility therefor is imposed. It is equally clear 
that such responsibility cannot be exacted without the 
grant of corresponding power. ... It may be said 
that it is dangerous to clothe him with so much 
authority. The answer is that such power must be 
lodged somewhere, if good government is to be attained, 
and wherever placed, it is essentially executive in its 
nature. The mayor is the chief executive of the city, 
and therefore he is the proper officer to exercise it. 
Without it there can be no efficiency in the performance 
of his duties." 

In the great cities of the country this principle has 
been fully established as essential for a responsible and 
efficient system of government. Its soundness has been 
repeatedly recognized by the Legislature in this Com- 
monwealth in its later treatment of municipal charters, 
notably in the case of the city of Boston. The prin- 
ciple thus accepted as proper in the executive govern- 
ment of Nation and city prevails in the executive 
departments of many of our sister States, which vest 
the removing power in the Governor alone. If undi- 
vided responsibility is essential for proper government 
in Nation, city, and other States, why is it not wise to 
place such responsibility also upon the Governor of our 
Commonwealth ? If the principle is sound, it obviously 
applies to all executive power. I believe that it has 
been thoroughly tested, that it has proved to be sound, 
and that it best secures what Webster felicitously 
called, "The people's government, made for the people, 
made by the people, and answerable to the people." 
Three hundred or more subordinate public officers, 
now under divided control or none, would thus be made 
directly responsible to the Chief Executive, and he by 
the Constitution is directly and immediately responsible 
to the sovereign people. These administrative officers, 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 161 

with few exceptions, exercise their jurisdiction over 
the whole Commonwealth. They should be responsible 
to a representative of the whole Commonwealth, and 
not to a body, each of whose inembers represents and 
is responsible to only a local constituency. I therefore 
earnestly commend to your favorable consideration 
such legislation as will give to the Governor the power 
to remove all these administrative officers for cause 
stated, leaving to the Council the power of confir- 
mation of his appointments. 

In making this recommendation, my criticism is of a 
system, and not of officials. I recognize the ability and 
fidelity which our public servants, with few exceptions, 
have given to their Commonwealth. Especially do I 
appreciate the unselfish, patriotic labor freely given 
her by noble men and women in her great work of 
education, charity, and reform, and for the health, 
safety, and prosperity of her people. This recommen- 
dation is without personal or selfish motive, and simply 
in the interest of efficient and responsible government. 
The record of my administration is proof of this fact. 
Of the few executive officers wholly under the control 
of the Governor, not one has been removed during my 
year of service except the Gypsy Moth Commissioners, 
and they for admitted cause. Of the many others 
whose terms have expired, a very large majority, 
though not of my political faith, have been reappointed. 
It is far easier and more agreeable for a public officer 
to have less rather than greater responsibility ; and the 
exercise of power over offices is the most irksome part 
of executive duty. Such power, I repeat, " makes any 
man conservative; its selfish use for patronage only 
is fortunately sure to be both disagreeable and destruc- 
tive."' I am confident that you will receive this recom- 
mendation in the spirit in which it is offered, and, 

11 



162 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

seeking only the public good, will give to it your careful 
consideration. 

EXECUTIVE BOARDS AND OFFICES. 

Again I call the attention of the Legislature to the 
subject of executive boards and offices, in the firm belief 
that some steps can be taken tending to simplify and 
systematize executive work. In its consideration you 
will have before you the report of the special committee 
of the last Legislature, which has made an investiga- 
tion of the matter during the recess. Apparently in 
the past some boards and offices have been created to 
meet an exigency of the moment, without due thought 
of their proper relation to existing administrative 
machinery, or to the question whether or not it could 
do the new work; and there never has been, I believe, 
a comprehensive consideration of this machinery as a 
whole, with a view to reduce it to a system, with 
proper dependence, responsibility, and harmony between 
its separate parts. I do not believe that the mere 
consolidation of boards and offices, having distinct 
fields of work without necessary dependence on each 
other, is any gain. This was tried without success 
with the Boards of Health, and of Lunacy and Charity. 
But greater efficiency and economy can be had by the 
abolition of some unnecessary offices, where the transfer 
of their duties can be made to some other authority as 
well or better fitted to do the work. Without attempt- 
ing to cover the field or to outline an administrative 
system, I call to your attention some instances where 
such changes, in my judgment, can properly be made. 

Board of Agriculture. — The State Board of Agricul- 
ture is one of the oldest of our boards, and represents 
an industry most important to our people and our 
Commonwealth. Its membership consists almost wholly 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 163 

of practical men, thoroughly conversant and in touch 
with that great industry. With their knowledge, 
experience, and personal interest in agriculture, they 
are especially well fitted to deal with all matters and 
laws relating to it, and to act for the Commonwealth 
where she touches agricultural interests. Yet from 
time to time there have been created for such work 
separate and distinct administrative commissions and 
boards, such as the Cattle Commission, the Gypsy Moth 
Commission, and the Board of Control of the Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station. Last year your predecessors 
abolished the Cypsy Moth Commission, and transferred 
its powers, duties, and appropriation to the Board of 
Agriculture, — to the great gain of agriculture and of 
the Commonwealth. They also created out of the Board 
a Dairy Bureau for the enforcement of the law to protect 
dairy products, instead of making a distinct commis- 
sion. Both of those steps were in the right direction, 
and tended to concentrate executive work in the proper 
and most competent hands, instead of dividing it 
among independent, unnecessary, and expensive com- 
missions. I believe, as further steps, that the duties 
of the Cattle Commission should be transferred to the 
Board of Agriculture, and the commission abolished ; 
and that the board should also have charge of the 
Agricultural Experiment Station. With these enlarged 
executive duties given to it, there should be added to 
the board necessary specialists for its various depart- 
ments, and the board itself should be organized into 
properly paid bureaus for executive work. Among its 
departments there might well be included one on roads, 
bridges, and drainage, having attached to it a compe- 
tent engineer. These subjects are of great importance, 
and affect seriously the health, comfort, and conve- 
nience of all our people. The travel upon our highways, 



lG-4 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

especiall}' for long distances between centres of popu- 
lation, has much increased. The need of improving 
these highways, and of more uniform and systematic 
methods in their construction and maintenance, is 
apparent. Without infringing on any local right or 
power, such a department could gather and distribute 
valuable information on this subject, and give expe- 
rienced advisory assistance on road construction and 
maintenance. I believe that this would lead to a more 
comprehensive and scientific treatment of all our high- 
ways, and to greater economy and improvement, than by 
unaided local effort. This subject has been called to the 
attention of the Legislature by several of my prede- 
cessors. I commend it to your careful consideration. 

I urge this transfer and grant of executive duties to 
the Board of Agriculture for the purpose of placing in 
one responsible and thoroughly representative board 
all the executive work of the Commonwealth relating 
to agriculture, and of giving to the farmers themselves 
the enforcement of all laws in which agriculture is 
especially interested. The board will then be, as it 
ought to be, one of the strongest and most important in 
the Commonwealth. 

State Board of Police for Boston. — This board was 
created in 1885, against strenuous opposition, for the 
purpose of taking from the city of Boston the control 
of her police force, and of vesting it in a State board, 
which was also given the licensing power. Since then 
the people of Boston have had no power whatever over 
their police, or over the enforcement within her limits 
of the laws of the State, or of the municipal ordinances 
enacted for their safety and benefit. If in their opinion 
constant and repeated violations of law are permitted, 
to their injury; if municipal ordinances are not 
enforced, resulting in detriment to the public health or 



INAUGURAL ADDEESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 165 

to the public convenience; if notorious and illegal 
resorts are allowed to exist, to the scandal and disgrace 
of the city; or if the control of the police and of the 
saloons is abused for political purposes, — the citizens of 
Boston have no power to correct these evils, but must 
patiently submit to them, while they are taxed for the 
whole expense of such enforcement of law. Boston is the 
only community within the Commonwealth which has 
thus been deprived of the right to govern herself. The 
declared reason for such legislation was mistrust of her 
citizens. I do not share that sentiment. On the con- 
trary, I have not only a firm belief in their right to 
govern themselves, but full confidence in their capacity 
and ability to do so. The jurisdiction of this State 
board over both licenses and police is a union of two 
distinct powers, wdiich, in my judgment, it is not for 
the public interest to have united in any one board. 
The power of granting or revoking licenses is judicial 
in its character; the other is purely executive. The 
first should be vested in a board of such appointment 
and tenure as to be judicial in its action; the other in 
a board responsible to the community over which it 
exercises executive control. I earnestly recommend a 
separation of these powers; that the control of her 
police be restored to the city of Boston ; and that you 
then consider whether the control of licenses should be 
left in the present board, or placed in another board of 
such character, appointment, and tenure that it shall 
be above all political, personal, or selfish influences, 
and shall command the confidence of the people. 

Swperintendent of Prisons. — This office, created in 
18(S7, and involving an expense of sixty-five hundred 
dollars a year, has few and very limited duties, all of 
which can be and should be performed by the various 
boards in charge of our penal institutions, or by the 



1G6 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

heads of such institutions under the direction of such 
boards. It is independent of the Board of Prison Com- 
missioners and its worlc, and seems to be out of gear 
with any existing administrative machinery. Unless 
you are prepared to follow the plan adopted in New 
York, which gives to a superintendent of prisons, in 
place of other boards, practically full charge of the 
whole prison system, and makes him, and so the 
administration of the system, responsible to the Gov- 
ernor, I believe the othce is not necessary or useful. 
For these and other reasons, more fully stated in a 
special message to the Legislature, March 23, 1891, I 
recommend that it be abolished. 

Topographical Survey Commission. — This commis- 
sion reports that it is now engaged in surveying and 
delineating the town boundaries of the Commonwealth, 
and that it will require at least ten years more for the 
work, of which about one-third is completed. In its 
opinion this work can best be done under the manage- 
ment of the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners. 
It recommends such transfer, which recommendation I 
submit for your favorable action. 

Board of Supervisors of Statistics. — This board, 
consisting of State officials, was created, in 1877, to 
have general supervision and control of all matters 
relating to statistics. It is required to "meet regu- 
larly at the State House at least once in each month." 
I am informed that it has met but once since its crea- 
tion, and has done nothing. It is responsible to no 
one. It seems to be useful only as a good illustration 
of the continued existence of unnecessary boards, and 
of the need of a thorough overhauling of our adminis- 
trative machinery. 

Building Commissions. — The custom has prevailed in 
the past, when any important State building was to be 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 167 

erected, of creating a salaried commission, usually of 
three members, to have charge of the work. These 
commissions have then employed architects, engineers, 
superintendents, clerks, or such other assistants as 
seemed necessary. While this work has been done in 
some instances with unquestioned fidelity and success, 
in others there have been delay, unnecessary expense, 
and great criticism, and in one instance the commis- 
sion itself was finally legislated out of office. I do 
not believe this method of construction is the most 
economical or expeditious, or that the creation of these 
commissions, with rare exceptions, is necessary. If a 
building is to be erected for an institution already exist- 
ing, I believe that the board in control of that insti- 
tution should have general supervision of the M'ork, 
having under it a proper person to superintend the 
construction. If the building is for a new institution, 
the board which is to manage it should be created at 
once, and should be given charge of the work. The 
advantage of this would be greater expedition, less 
expense, more care, and better results in building, and 
a better institution when in operation, because of the 
experience and knowledge acquired by the board in its 
erection. This was the plan adopted in building the 
hospital provided for in chapter 412 of the Acts of 
1889, — a precedent which I recommend be followed in 
the future. If the building is not or is not to be in 
charge of any board, then its erection might be under the 
direction of the Governor and Council, or other proper 
officials having under them some one to superintend the 
work. If this plan, suggested for future building, 
meets with your approval, it may be wise and necessary 
to create a State officer to superintend the details of 
the construction of State buildings, under the control 
of the respective boards in charge of the work. 



168 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

The entire absence of responsibility or system in our 
executive work ; the instances suggested of needed 
change or abolition of offices, and others which may 
occur to you ; the advantage of grouping under proper 
departments our executive boards and commissions ; the 
expediency of devising some better way of bringing the 
needs and the information of the executive departments 
to the attention of the Legislature; and the necessity 
of reducing to a proper system and control our present 
cumbersome executive machinerv, — all these reasons 
will, I trust, lead you to make a comprehensive and 
thorough examination of this l)ranch of our government. 

Two other matters connected with executive work 
deserve your attention. 



CLERICAL ASSISTANCE. 

Over one hundred thousand dollars are spent each 
year by executive departments for clerical assistance, 
under appropriations which give to the head of the 
department a gross sum to be divided and distributed 
for this purpose as he deems necessary. For one 
department sixteen thousand dollars are so appropriated. 
The head of that department can hire sixteen clerks for 
one thousand dollars apiece, or one clerk for sixteen 
thousand dollars, if he wishes. The Civil Service 
Commissioners have earnestly requested a change in 
this system, in which request I concur. In my judg- 
ment, the clerical force of the departments should be 
established by law upon a permanent basis, with fixed 
salaries, and with a small contingent appropriation 
allowed to the head of the department for such tempo- 
rary and additional clerical service as may be needed in 
an emergency. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 169 



DEFICIENCY IN APPROPRIATIONS. 

Each year in some departments contingent liabilities 
are incurred beyond their appropriations, which are 
paid later out of a deficiency appropriation. It is then 
practically impossible to question the expenditure. 
While such liabilities are no doubt for necessary and 
unforeseen expenses, still, as the law absolutely forbids 
any public officer to make any purchase or incur any 
liability beyond the amount appropriated, in my judg- 
ment when a department finds its appropriation 
exhausted, and yet there is necessity for further expen- 
diture, it ought, before incurring any expense, to get 
the sanction of some other proper authority. I suggest 
that in the contingency stated, the department should 
be required to report the facts to the Governor and 
Council, and to receive their assent before incurring 
any further expense. 

THE SUFFRAGE. 

It is a pleasure on this occasion to congratulate you 
upon the ratification and adoption by the people, with 
great unanimity, of the constitutional amendment 
submitted to them by your predecessors, abolishing the 
tax qualification for voting. After a struggle of more 
than a century, untaxed suffrage in the election of State 
and National officers has thus been established in our 
Commonwealth. This amendment may require to 
some limited extent changes in the law of registration. 
These should be on the lines of our established policy, 
without essential modifications. While they should 
seek to protect the franchise, they should not render 
its exercise any more onerous and difficult than is 
necessary for its security As the abuse of the fran- 



170 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

chise should always be discouraged and severely pun- 
ished, so its exercise should be encouraged and made as 
little burdensome as possible, that we may avoid the 
evils which a failure to vote by large numbers of our 
fellow-citizens seems at times to threaten. 

At present there is a difference in the qualification 
of voters in State and National elections, and in town 
and city elections. The tax qualification for the former 
has been abolished by the recent amendment; it still 
remains on the latter by statute law. Of course this 
difference should not continue to exist. As the people 
have, by an overwhelming majority, abolished the tax 
qualification as far as it was directly in their power, 
and as in the past, suffrage has been uniform for all 
elections, with the single exception of a limited fran- 
chise for women, it is now necessary that this tax 
qualification should be abolished also in town and city 
elections. 

ELECTION AND BALLOT LAWS, 

T again recommend the passage of a comprehensive 
and stringent law to secure the publication of election 
expenses, and, if practicable, to limit their amount and 
define their proper objects ; and I again urge, and now 
as a matter of pressing importance, an amendment of 
the ballot law, so that a single mark may constitute 
a vote for all the presidential electors of a ])olitical 
party. At present, to give full effect to a vote for 
President, the voter must mark separately the names of 
fifteen electors. As these electors are only the con- 
stitutional machinery for electing a President, with a 
single perfunctory duty to perform, and this already 
determined, and as the voter is not supposed to have 
any individual preference between them, there seems 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 171 

to be no use in requiring the separate marking of 
each name. The danger is that, with the present 
tendency to partial voting, many voters, through care- 
lessness or mistake, will not mark the full list of elec- 
tors. In a close election, this would almost certainly 
lead to an unintentional division of the electoral vote 
of the State. 

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS. 

The following recommendations, submitted to the 
last Legislature in my inaugural, or later messages, 
and based upon reasons therein fully set forth, I submit 
to your favorable consideration : — 

First. Further legislation, of a stringent and radi- 
cal character, to remedy the evils of the lobby, and to 
limit its influence. 

Second. The passage of general laws, upon the lines 
already suggested by me, to relieve the Legislature and 
the public of the burden of constantly increasing special 
legislation. 

Third. Extension of the powers of cities and towns, 
and of local self-government, especially in matters of 
taxation, control and sale of franchises, and extending 
the limits of municipal work and of municipal 
ownership. 

Fourth. The passage of a general municipal law for 
the incorporation and government of cities, with the 
limitations heretofore suggested. This subject was 
investigated by a special committee of the last Legis- 
lature, who will report to you the results of its 
investigation. 

Fifth. Legislation to prevent railroad corporations 
from giving free passes to members of the Legislature, 
or to other officials before whom come matters in 
which these corporations are interested. 



172 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

Sixth. A thorough reform in our system of land 
transfer and registration, upon the plan of the Austra- 
lian, or Torrens, system, so called, to bring about greater 
freedom, security, and cheapness in the transfer of real 
estate. You will have, in considering this subject, 
the benefit of the investigation made by a special com- 
mittee of the last Legislature. 

Seventh. Further consideration of legislation asked 
for in the interest of the wage-earner, especially the re- 
duction of the hours of labor of women and children em- 
ployed in factories and workshops ; amendment of the 
Employer's Liability Act, to broaden its scope and make 
it more efficient and beneficent in its results ; and further 
action for the proper protection of railroad employees 
against the dangers to which they are exposed. The 
appalling fact that in the United States, during the 
year ending June 30, 1890, 3G9 employees were killed 
in coupling or uncoupling cars, and 7,841 were injured, 
makes legislation for the adoption of safety appliances 
which will prevent such accidents imperative. National 
legislation is necessary as the only effective remedy. 
I recommend that, following the precedent of the Legis- 
lature of last year, you petition Congress to take action, 
and that you use every means possible to hasten a 
remedy. 

I call your attention to the fact that chapter 125 of 
the Acts of 1891, entitled, "An Act to prohibit the 
Lnposition of Fines or Deductions of Wages of 
Employees engaged at Weaving," has been declared 
by the Supreme Judicial Court to be unconstitutional, 
I submit for your consideration whether a proper meas- 
ure, not open to constitutional objection, cannot be 
adopted to accomplish the purpose sought by this Act. 

I congratulate you upon the success so far attained 
by the important and popular agitation against the 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 173 

conditions of labor and of health in tenement -houses, 
especially against the so-called sweating system, and 
upon the earnest efforts which have been made by the 
Commonwealth and individuals t6 improve these condi- 
tions, to elevate this labor, to relieve this distress, and 
to protect the health and welfare of the public. It 
was my privilege to call the attention of the Legislature 
last year by special message to this subject. An Act 
was then passed to regulate the use of tenements as 
workshops, and providing for the appointment of two 
additional State inspectors on the district police force. 
1 am informed by the chief of this force that through 
their efforts many of the evils have been stopped, and 
the use of tenements as workshops has been largely 
abandoned. Much still remains to be done. I urge 
your earnest co-operation in all efforts in this direction, 
which cannot but be a benefit to the Commonwealth. 

Eiglith. Again I recommend to the favorable consid- 
eration of the Legislature the adoption of industrial 
education and manual training as part of the system of 
instruction in our public schools, at least in some com- 
munities. This subject is now under thorough investi- 
gation by an able and experienced commission, which 
will later report to you. I believe that such instruc- 
tion is useful and successful educationally, and of 
great practical benefit to the people ; that it would 
increase and lengthen the attendance at our public 
schools, and would raise the maximum age for compul- 
sory attendance, as provided in chapter 361 of the Acts 
of 1891, and make it proper to limit still further the 
employment of children in manufacturing and other 
establishments. 

A year ago I called the attention of the Legislature 
to the great inequality in public education in different 
places, and to the marked difference in the character 



174 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

and efficiency of their schools, in the amount spent 
upon them for each pupil, and in the burden of taxation 
for such expenditure ; and I asked your predecessors to 
consider whether the State, having wisely done so much 
for the education of her children, as of vital conse- 
quence to her safety and prosperity, could not properly 
go farther, and strive for the equal education of all to a 
certain standard; and whether sucl} equalization could 
not justly be based upon the fact that the interest of 
every locality in public education is not and ought not 
to be limited to the education of its own children. 
Something was done in this direction by chapter 177 of 
the Acts of 1891, which provided for a new distribu- 
tion of the school fund, for the benefit of the poorer and 
more heavily taxed towns. I commend the subject to 
your careful consideration. With most gratifying 
unanimity the people of the Commonwealth have shown 
their devotion and loyalty to our public schools. Let 
us in the same spirit earnestly seek to promote their 
Interests, to maintain them in their full vigor, and to 
extend their great field of usefulness. Let us keep out 
of them any spirit of intolerance, which cannot but 
work them harm. Above all, let us not seek to divide 
our people politically over this great and cherished 
institution, when they are and ought to be one in word 
and thought and act in their devotion to it. 

THE world's COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 

Last year the Legislature appropriated $75,000 for a 
proper exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition of 
the resources, products, and general development of the 
Commonwealth, and provided for the appointment of a 
board of five managers to have charge of this work. 
This board has since been appointed and organized, and 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 175 

has begun its duties with commendable energy. In its 
opinion, and in the opinion of others familiar with the 
matter, the appropriation is not sufficient for such an 
exhibit as the Commonwealth ought to make, nor does 
it compare favorably with the appropriations of other 
States. I recommend that the appropriation be 
increased. I believe that all our people are determined 
that this exposition shall be an unqualified success, 
and are willing to do their full share to this end. It 
certainly is most important — more important than the 
question of expense — that Massachusetts should make 
such an exhibit of her products and resources, of her 
history and institutions, as shall give her there the proud 
pre-eminence which she holds throughout the Union. 

EAPID TRANSIT. 

The Legislature of 1891 created a commission to 
investigate the important problem of rapid transit for 
Boston and vicinity, and to consider the many ques- 
tions connected with this subject. The results of its 
thorough investigation will be reported to you, and will 
demand your most careful consideration. 

Senators and Representatives : We now begin our 
respective duties in the government of i\\Q Common- 
wealth. While realizing our responsibility, let us rise 
to our opportunity. The oath we have taken subor- 
dinates all fealty to party to fidelity to the State, and 
subjects every personal and class interest to the public 
good. Steadfast to principle, true to conviction, how- 
ever variant our opinions, let us in all jneasures be 
careful and candid in consideration, tolerant, cautious, 
and conservative in action, that in our legislation we 
may realize the aphorism of Lord Bacon, that " it be 



17G INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1892. 

the reformation that draweth on the change, and not 
the desire of change that pretendeth the reformation." 
A sense of responsibility to the people, an earnest 
desire to serve their interests and to merit and receive 
their confidence, will bring to the discharge of our 
duties the courage, fidelity, and unselfish purpose which 
make useful, honorable public servants. Let our only 
strife be how best to advance the interests of our 
Commonwealth, and to promote the prosperity and hap- 
piness of all her people. As loyally we cling to her, 
the blessed mother, and lovingly as her children take 
up her work, "with us as with our fathers, may God 
be;" and may He enable us to transmit our goodly 
heritage, enriched by faithful stewardship. 



MESSAGE 

VETOING AN ACT TO AUTHOEIZE THE CONNECTICUT 
RIVER RAILROAD COMPANY TO INCREASE ITS CAPI- 
TAL STOCK. 

Executive Department, Boston, May 9, 1892. 
To THE Honorable House of Representatives: 

THEREWITH return, with my objections, a bill 
entitled "An Act to authorize the Connecticut 
River Railroad Company to increase its capital stock," 
which originated in your body. 

The bill authorizes an increase of '12,420,000 of saidi 
stock, making the total authorized capital 85,000,000, 
or about double its present amount. In the absence of 
any resti'iction in the bill, this additional stock may 
and no doubt will be divided at its par value of $100 
among the stockholders of said company in proportion 
to their holdings. The present market value of the 
stock of this company, as fixed by recent sales, is about 
'1235 a share ; so that in effect this bill authorizes the 
distribution to its stockholders of new stock, nearly 
equal in amount to the present stock, at less than one 
half its present market value. The difference between 
its par and market value will be clear profit to each 
stockholder, and represents the proportion of new 
stock not necessary for the purposes of the company, 
and for which the company itself gets no benefit or 
return. Less than one half of this proposed increase 
of stock, if sold at this market value, would yield to 

12 



178 CONNECTICUT EIVER RAILROAD COMPANY. 

the company as much money as the whole increase 
so distributed to the stockholders. The bill, while in 
form an authorized increase of capital for the purposes 
of the company, practically gives the authority and 
sanction of the Commonwealth to the creation of more 
than double the amount of new capital, estimated at its 
market value, required for such purposes, and indirectly 
to the division of the balance among- the stockholders 
as an enormous dividend. 

Speakino- in round numbers, the two and one-half 
millions of dolhirs of proposed new stock at present 
market value is worth over five and one-half millions 

« 

of dollars. Of this last amount two and one half 
millions of dollars will go into the treasury of the 
company, and more than three millions of dollars into 
the pockets of the stockholders. To enable them to 
obtain this bonus, nearly one and one-half millions of 
dollars of unnecessar}' stock is added to the capital, 
the dividend upon which at ten per cent places an 
unnecessai-y burden of $150,000 each year upon the 
business of the railroad, that is, upon the public. 
Every pound of freight and every passenger carried by 
this company will contribute to meet this burden. 
Meanwhile, this unnecessary increase of capital adds 
nothing to the resources of the railroad, to the facilities 
for its use, or to the compensation of those who make 
such use practicable. 

So far as this bill provides for any necessary increase 
of the capital stock of this company, I see no objection 
to it. But if in the mode of the increase and its dis- 
tribution it creates an unnecessary amount of stock for 
the sole benefit of its stockholders, but which is to be 
a perpetual and needless burden upon the public, then 
I believe it to be my duty, before giving my approval 
to such a measure, carefully to consider whether the 



CONNECTICUT RIVER RAILROAD COMPANY. 179 

public cannot properly and justly interf(;re to prevent 
such burden. In the trust relation in which this com- 
pany, under the uniform decisions of all our courts 
and legislatures, stands to the public, I believe such 
interference is proper, and that a sound public policy 
requires its exercise. At least it requires that the 
Commonwealth shall not actively co-operate in placing 
the burden upon the public, by grant of the necessary 
authority. 

I recognize and appreciate all the rights of capital 
and property in our great lines of transportation, and 
Avould guard them with most conservative and scrupu- 
lous care, and, remembering the great public conve- 
nience which they serve, would grant them every just 
demand. But the rights of the public should be guarded 
as zealously, and asserted as against the personal wish 
or benefit of the individual. 

Our Supreme Judicial Court has clearly defined the 
trust relation of a railway company to the public. It 
has declared that "the establishment of such a great 
thoroughfare is regarded as a public work, established 
by public authority, intended for the public use and 
benefit, the use of which is secured to the whole 
community, and constitutes, therefore, like a canal, 
turnpike, or highway, a public easement. The only 
principle on which the Legislature could have author- 
ized the taking of private property for its construction, 
without the owner's consent, is that it was for the public 
use. ... It is true that the real and personal prop- 
erty necessary to the establishment and management 
of the railroad is vested in the corporation; but it is 
in trust for the public. The company have not the 
general power of disposal incident to the absolute right 
of property. They are obliged to use it in a particular 
manner and for the accomplishment of a well-defined 



180 CONNECTICUT EIVER RAILROAD COMPANY. 

public object; they are required to render frequent 
accounts of their management of this property to the 
agents of the public; and they are bound ultimately 
to surrender it to the public at a price and upon 
terms established. " ^ 

These principles have been repeatedly recognized 
and affirmed by all courts, National and State, and 
by legislation everywhere in our country. They are 
fundamental law. 

This company has a valuable property in its railroad, 
for which it is entitled to all just protection and con- 
sideration. But it is a property to which, in its origin, 
a public trust is attached. To sustain this trust the 
property itself was created, and in indissoluble connec- 
tion with this trust in all legislation it must ever be 
considered. It cannot divest its property from the 
trust, nor ought it to do anything which can impair 
the value of the trust, or hazard its rights and objects. 
The company cannot sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of 
this property, deflect it from its purpose, or abandon 
its use. Because of this public trust, the company is 
exempt from certain taxation, and is given by law 
extraordinary powers and privileges, while it is prop- 
erly allowed, for services rendered, fair and liberal com- 
pensation. The company, holding its property thus 
in trust, while most carefully protected in its every 
property and personal right and interest, must be 
rigidly held faithfully and fully to administer the great 
trust imposed upon it. As with other trustees, it can- 
not be allowed in any way to depreciate, impair, or 
unnecessarily to burden its trust, nor, in disregard of 
its obligations and duties, to look exclusively, in the 
administration of the trust, to its own benefit and profit. 
Where the beneficiaries of the trust are the public, who 

1 Worcester vs. Western R. R. Co., 4 Met. 566. 



CONNECTICUT KIVER RAILROAD COMPANY. 181 

constantly depend upon legislative action for the protec- 
tion of their rights and the redress of any grievances, it 
is especially incumhent upon us to see that such action 
is not detrimental to their interests. 

The public trust imposed upon a railroad corporation 
distinguishes it widely from private business or manu- 
facturing companies, which have no such legal obliga- 
tion, but are established for the holding, use, and 
control of private property for only personal ends and 
profit. 

The Commonwealth has reserved the right, not only 
to amend or repeal all railroad charters, but also to 
purchase the property itself, and to fix the rate of com- 
pensation, under certain limitations. The law provides 
that upon purchase it shall pay the amount of capital 
stock paid in, with a net profit thereon of ten per cent 
a year. This seems by law and custom to have been 
regarded as a fair maximum profit for the supply, man- 
agement, and risk of the capital necessary for these 
quasi-public corporations. The Legislature has rarely 
had occasion or disposition to use the great power thus 
reserved to it, and the railroad companies have con- 
sidered it prudent and just to keep within this limit. 
This is a stronger reason why the Legislature should 
not sanction a measure which indirectly carries the 
profit much above this limit. 

I know and appreciate the argument that an increase 
in the value of the stock of a railroad company, caused 
by its prudent management and extension of business, 
belongs to the company. But requiring the disposition, 
at its market value, of any new stock created does not 
conflict with this right. It gives to the company the 
whole benefit of such increase. It prevents the issue 
of stock more in amount than is necessary to raise the 
sum needed. It saves to the individual stockholder 



182 CONNECTICUT RIVER RAILROAD COMPANY. 

any depreciation of his stock likely to follow from such 
unnecessary addition to the capital, and to the bene- 
ficiary public the burdensome charge of paying a divi- 
dend upon it. A needless burden is always an unjust 
burden, and is the more felt and resented when the 
occasion out of which it has arisen has been created 
by the activity, progress, and business of those upon 
whom it falls. The commercial activity and increased 
travel of a community give a large business to a rail- 
road. This requires of it permanent additions to and 
improvements of its property, and so an increase of its 
capital. This increase ought not to be so made as to 
be itself an enormous dividend to its stockholders, 
and an unnecessary burden upon the contributing 
community. 

To a people largely dependent upon the railroads and 
cheap transportation, not only for their convenience 
and hai)piness, but also for their commercial prosperity, 
such burden comes with greater weight. Against it 
have been uttered their protests, emphasized by the 
formal action of the leading commercial bodies of New 
England. 

For these reasons I believe the interests alike of the 
public, the railroad company, and, in the long run, of 
its stockholders, require that when the authority of 
the Commonwealth is asked and given for an increase 
of the stock of the company, some provision should be 
made for the disposition of said stock at its market 
value, where such market value is largely in excess of 
its par value. If there is objection to its sale by 
auction, the o])tion might well be given to the stock- 
holders to take it at a fair value, to be determined by 
the Board of Railroad Commissioners. 

While the Commonwealth has not made such pro- 
vision by general law applicable to all railroad corpo- 

• 



CONNECTICUT RIVER RAILROAD COMPANY. 183 

rations, it has already establislied a precedent for such 
a policy in the future. In giving authority last year ^ 
to the Boston and Lowell Railroad corporation to in- 
crease its capital stock, it expressly required that the 
new stock should be sold at public auction. What was 
sound public policy then when applied to that railroad 
seems to me sound public policy now as applied to this 
railroad. Other great railroad corporations, such as 
the Old Colony and the West End, have without com- 
pulsion of law sold their new stock at auction, and 
every gas company chartered in this Commonwealth is 
required by law to do so. 

In the light of this practice and these precedents, 
I can see neither injustice nor hardship in requiring 
that the increase of capital authorized by this bill shall 
be upon a similar condition. On the contrary, I believe 
that both the public interest and a just public senti- 
ment demand that it be done. 

I therefore return this bill for your further consider- 
ation, with the suggestion that if the views herein 
expressed meet with your approval, a bill in conformity 
with them, granting to this company authority to in- 
crease its stock, be passed. 

1 Chap. 207, Acts of 1891. 



MESSAGE 

VETOING AN ACT TO PROMOTE TEMPERANCE BY THE 
SUPPRESSION OF THE LIQUOR SALOON. 

Executive Department, Boston, June 16, 1892. 
To THE Honorable House of Eepresentatives : 

I RETURN herewith, with my objections, a bill 
entitled "An Act to promote temperance by the 
suppression of the liquor saloon and tippling shop," 
which originated in your body. 

If I believed that this bill would promote the cause of 
temperance, I would gladly give it my approval. But 
I do not believe it will have or is expected to have this 
result; but, on the contrary, that it will lead to evasion, 
and to the unequal and imperfect application and en- 
forcement of law, as was recently fully illustrated 
in reference to the public bar law. 

This bill in sul)stance merely prohibits the keeping 
or sale of liquor in any room, building, or place where 
the sale of liquor is the exclusive or principal busi- 
ness carried on. It therefore requires only that every 
licensee should provide himself with some other busi- 
ness in addition to the sale of liquors, — such, for ex- 
ample, as the sale of food or of newspapers, providing 
billiards or some other amusement as a business, or 
the exhibition of pictures or delivery of lectures, etc., 
— to which he may claim to make the sale of liquors 
subordinate, and then leave it to a jury to determine 
this fact. It is perfectly clear to me that this is only 



SUPPKESSION OF THE LIQUOK SALOON. 185 

encouraging a repetition of an experience in this 
Commonwealth which proved to be so much of a farce 
and scandal as to lead the Legislature last year to 
repeal the cause of it. It was found then that the 
provision in reference to a public bar was enforced in 
only one or two places, that it had not advanced the 
cause of temperance, that it was not sustained by 
public sentiment, and that, by constant evasions and 
non -enforcement, it was an injury to the cause of law 
and order, and so the provision was repealed. 

Under this bill the seller of liquor can go through 
the farce of establishing a "principal business," and 
again we shall have an experience with unequal and 
imperfect attempts at enforcement of law. 

I believe it is an unwise policy to enact legislation 
which, it is almost certain, will open the way to make 
a farce of law by non-enforcement, when law ought to 
be thoroughly enforced, with the full support and appro- 
bation of the community. 

I will gladly give my sanction and aid to every 
proper measure which will advance the cause of tem- 
perance, and to the full extent of my power will have 
the laws of this Commonwealth thoroughly enforced. 
Wherever in the past such enforcement has fallen 
within my official duty, I have sought to make it effec- 
tive. But I do most earnestly urge on the consideration 
of the Legislature the mischief of making provisions of 
law which, in the light of experience, it is believed 
will lead only to evasions, non-enforcement, and a 
farce. 

Under the wise and well-established policy of this 
Commonwealth, each locality has full power to deter- 
mine for itself the question of the sale of liquor within 
its limits, and, if it desires, can absolutely prohibit such 
sale. 



186 SUPPRESSION OF THE LIQUOR SALOON. 

The annual discussion and decision of this question 
in our local communities have preserved fully their 
local rights, and have also been an educational influence 
of great importance in advancing the cause of temper- 
ance. Even if a community votes for license, the local 
authorities have now absolute power to determine how 
many licenses, if any, shall be granted, and to what 
persons and what places and for what purpose. 

Everything sought to be accomplished by this bill can 
now be accomplished by the local authorities of any 
community. They can limit licenses, if they wish, 
to apothecaries, hotel-keepers, or grocers, or any other 
class within their discretion. They cannot now grant 
a license for sale of liquor to be drunk on the premises 
except to a common victualler, that is, to one who 
conducts also the business of furnishing food. If this 
provision, now existing in law, can be and is en- 
forced, it covers the case sought to be reached by this 
bill; if it is not enforced, and cannot be, it is not more 
law, but more enforcement of law, which is needed. 

In view of the full powers now given to local commu- 
nities to establish prohibition or to restrict the persons 
or places to be licensed, or the purpose for which a 
license shall be used, and of the many other restric- 
tions and limitations now existing. I do not believe 
this proposed law is wise or necessary. 

If this measure is directed especially to the city of 
Boston, it should be remembered that for every liquor 
saloon or tippling shop which now exists there, the 
responsibility rests directly upon the Board of Police 
created by the State, and that there is now and has 
been in their hands full power to prohibit the existence 
of any and every such saloon or shop. 

The conditions and sentiment of different communi- 
ties vary greatly upon the question of the sale of liquor. 



SUPPRESSION OF THE LIQUOR SALOON. 187 

It seems to me wiser to allow for such differences of 
condition, opinion, and sentiment, by giving discretion 
npori this question to each comnumity and its properly 
constituted authorities, than to disregard such differ- 
ences by general provisions of law; so the law enacted 
by each community will have behind it the power and 
public sentiment of that community, and will be, as it 
ought to be and must be, thoroughly enforced. It is 
such a policy which has received the repeated approval 
and indorsement of the people of this Commonwealth. 
It is in thorough accord with our belief in local self- 
government, and in my judgment it is constantly 
advancing the cause of temperance. 

This bill does not in any way or form prohibit the 
sale of liquor or limit the number of places where it 
may be sold, or tend to promote prohibition. Such sale 
may be just as open as at present, and as easily acces- 
sible to any person desiring to purchase liquor; nor will 
he be required to order food therewith, or to patronize 
any other business of the seller. 

This Legislature has shown that it does not believe 
in prohibition, by its refusal to establish it, or to limit 
further the number of licenses, or to enact any other 
measures in that direction. 

The provision of this bill is solely that some other 
principal business must be carried on at the place of 
sale. This is certain to be difficult of construction and 
enforcement, and may well add to the admitted evils 
and temptations of the saloon. It certainly is of 
doubtful public policy to force the association of other 
business with the sale of liquor. 

It is not at all likely that this business, which is 
notoriously profitable, would by this law be limited in 
extent or change hands, but only that it would disguise 
its conduct to meet the formal requirements of the law. 



188 SUPPRESSION OF THE LIQUOR SALOON. 

Instead of suppressing the saloon, in my judgment it 
would add to its evils, and instead of promoting tem- 
perance, it would lead to evasions and conditions which 
would tend to injure this most worthy cause. 

As this bill comes to me with fifty or sixty others in 
the closing hours of your session, I am compelled to 
express in a hasty and imperfect way the reasons which 
lead me to believe that the measure is injudicious, and 
that it is more conservative and wise to withhold my 
approval of it than to allow it to become a law, espe- 
cially as it is not to take effect until May 1, 1893, and 
there is, therefore, ample opportunity for another 
Legislature to give it consideration. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

TO THE LEGISLATURE, JAN. 5, 1893. 

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives : 

AS I enter upon the duties of Governor for the 
third time, I gratefully express to the people of 
the Commonwealth my appreciation of their renewed 
confidence, and of the honor, dignity, and responsi- 
bility of the trust they have committed to my charge. 
We all are their servants to do their work, and should 
be ready and anxious faithfully to discharge our obliga- 
tion to them by unselfish devotion to their interests. 

In accordance with well-established custom, it is my 
duty at this time to submit to you suggestions and 
recommendations for your consideration and action. 
This duty I construe to be a privilege to deal with 
broader matters than the specific recommendations of 
departments, however important these may be, and to 
suggest principles of legislation and necessary reforms, 
rather than perfunctorily to indorse or transmit details 
of administration, all of which are ably and fully set 
forth in the reports of State officials made directly to 
you. 

Acting upon this view, it was my privilege in 
addressing the Legislature of 1891 to recommend 
important and fundamental reforms in reference to 
qualifications for the suffrage, protection of elections 
and legislation from improper influences, relief from 
special legislation, greater system and responsibility 



190 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 

in administration and other matters, — all to the end 
that law might ever be the free, true expression of the 
people's will, and its administration just, pure, and hon- 
est. In 1892, in my inaugural address and in special 
messages, 1 directed the attention of the Legislature 
to the executive branch of our government, to the 
great increase of its duties, the lack of uniformity or 
system in its organization, and its entire absence of 
responsibility; and I urged such changes as would 
create complete responsibility to the people, and would 
remedy these evils. 

Some of these recommendations of the past two years 
have become law. The abolition of a property qualifi- 
cation for the otlfice of Governor has followed the aboli- 
tion of a tax qualification for the suffrage ; and neither 
restriction, I am glad to say, has any longer a place 
in the Constitution of our free Commonwealth. Wise 
laws to guard the purity of elections and of legislation 
have been passed, but more stringent measures are 
necessary to accomplish the desired reforms. The use 
of money in large amounts for campaign purposes with- 
out restriction is still a public evil ; and the lobby, if not 
as notorious and scandalous as in the past, still exists 
as a malignant influence, tainting legislation with its 
corrupting touch. I recommend legislation to define 
the objects of expenditure for campaign purposes, and so 
restrict its amount, and the most stringent treatment 
by law, on the lines heretofore suggested by me, of the 
evil of the lobby, so as to obviate its necessity, take 
away its opportunity, and give publicity to its acts. 
I also commend to your consideration the justice of 
giving the same recognition upon the official ballot to 
any well-established and regularly organized political 
party as is now given to the leading political parties, 
and the expediency of repealing the law permitting a 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 191 

recount of ballots. In my judgment, such recount is 
open to more serious objections and dangers than to 
make the count at the polls final, as is done generally 
in other States. If the recount is abolished, every 
effort should be made by legislation to insure the abso- 
lute accuracy and fairness of the original count. Other 
recommendations hei'etofore made, and not necessary 
here to enumerate, have been considered and approved 
by your predecessors. There are still others of im- 
portance not yet adopted which I again submit to 
your careful and early attention. Of these, I believe 
the most important is the reform of the existing 
machinery for the discharge of executive duties, — 
machinery now without system, and destructive of that 
executive responsibility and supervision which the Con- 
stitution devolves upon the Governor, and for the proper 
exercise of which it meant to make him at all times 
amenable to tbe people. I have heretofore so fully 
considered this subject, and stated the facts and argu- 
ments upon which I based an earnest recommendation 
for radical changes, that I need now but briefly refer to 
them. 

With the exception of a few elected officers, the 
administrative work of the Commonwealth is in the 
hands of boards and commissions composed of hun- 
dreds of members. In their creation no fixed principle 
of appointment, tenure, or removal has been followed, 
and no uniformity in these respects exists. Some are 
unnecessary, and should be abolished ; others should 
be systematized into proper departments, or made subor- 
dinate to existing departments. Over many there is no 
power of removal, and so of control, in any authority. 
As far as this power is given to the chief executive, 
its use almost without exception requires the concur- 
rence of an executive council of nine, which concur- 



192 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 

rence, as experience shows, practically involves a trial 
of an official upon formal charges; so that administra- 
tion is largely beyond the control of the people, because 
not subject to any officer immediately responsible to 
them. Another year's experience has only shown more 
clearly the danger, friction, and irresponsibility of our 
present system; the absence of proper power in the 
Governor, and so of responsible control in the people. 
Another year of public discussion of this important 
State question, w^ith past experience as an object lesson, 
has, on a direct appeal to the people, shown distinctly, 
I believe, their dissatisfaction and demand for a change. 
They mean that the executive head of the Common- 
wealth, their servant, shall be in fact as in name the 
supreme executive magistrate, always and solely 
responsible to them, and that he shall have all the 
powers commensurate with such responsibility. They 
repudiate a system which devolves executive duties, for 
which he is and ought to be held responsible, upon 
bodies over which he has little or no control or 
influence. 

The question of continuing in our executive system 
an elected council, which exists in but three of our 
forty-four States, and here has become the subject of 
serious criticism and opposition, I submit to your con- 
sideration. Its constitutional power is not important, 
and could well be exercised by other existing bodies. 
The power given it by legislation to control, concur- 
rently with the Governor, some executive boards and 
departments, is, in its exercise, either perfunctory, 
and so unimportant, or, if independent, necessarily 
divides responsibility, and so becomes inconsistent 
with any sound system of executive management. 
There are no such peculiar conditions of executive work 
in this Commonwealth as to require the continued 



INAUGUEAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 193 

existence of this now anomalous institution. If, how- 
ever, its power were properly limited to its constitutional ' 
duties, it might perhaps remain as a harmless conces- 
sion to a conservative, antiquarian sentiment. I again 
renew the suggestions and recommendations I have 
heretofore made upon this general subject: first, that 
certain unnecessary offices and commissions be al)ol- 
ished ; second, that pro))cr steps be taken to simplify 
and systematize the machinery for administrative work ; 
third, that administration be placed upon a basis of full 
responsibility to the people, by vesting in the Governor 
alone the power to remove, for cause stated, any execu- 
tive officer appointed by him. I also renew the recom- 
mendation thrice made by my experienced predecessor, 
Governor Long, that the people be given an opportunity 
to express their opinion upon the need of an elected 
executive council, l)y submission to them of a constitu- 
tional amendment providing for its abolition. To these 
suggestions I urge your careful attention, trusting that 
you Avill take such wise and patriotic action as shall 
promote efficiency and responsibility in the discharge 
of executive duty. 

STATE PRISON. 

In this connection, and at the risk of tedious repeti- 
tion, I submit for the third time to the consideration of 
the Legislature the immediate necessity of a change in 
our system of prison control. The management of the 
State Prison has for years attracted the attention and 
criticism of the public. While I believe that under its 
present administration there has been improvement in 
the conduct and discipline of the prison, notwithstand- 
ing the serious disadvantages of its crowded condition, 

and the confusion arising from new construction, yet its 

13 



19-i INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 

management, in my judgment, cannot be entirely suc- 
cessful without important changes in the system. The 
first requisite for a proper system is power with 
responsibility, and this at present is lacking. The 
warden has no power over his principal subordinates, 
except with the concurrence of the Board of Prison 
Commissioners. They have no power whatever over 
him, and the Governor little, if any, over them. The 
chain of effective responsibility, from the humblest 
officer up to the people, is broken at every link. I 
again recommend that the warden be given control of 
his subordinate officers, the Board of Prison Commis- 
sioners control of him, and the Governor control of 
them. The advantage of such a change, as stated by 
me nearly two years ago in a special message, will be 
to "establish a system of prison management which 
gives to each official the power proper and necessary 
for the discharge of his duty, and to concentrate 
responsibility where it properly l^elongs. Under such 
a system, if there is lack of discipline, insubordination, 
or mismanagement at the prison, the subordinate 
officers are answeral)le for it to the warden, who has 
the power and responsibility of correcting the trouble. 
For the proper exercise of his power the warden is 
answerable to the Prison Commissioners, they to the 
Governor, and the Governor to the people of the 
Commonwealth." I again dwell upon this subject, not 
merely because it is one of many illustrations which 
might be given of the inefficiency and irresponsibility 
of our general system of administration, but also because 
in this instance, as the evil may lead to serious conse- 
quences, its correction is of pressing importance. The 
people should know the cause of the trouble, that they 
may place the responsibility for its continuance where 
it properly belongs. 



INAUGUEAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 195 



RIGHT OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN TOWN AND CITY. 

The right of self-government is an axiom of our 
political system. Wherever this right can be exercised 
directly by the people themselves, such exercise should 
be carefully conserved. Where representation of the 
people is necessary, the representative should be directly 
and immediately responsible to them. In recognition 
of this principle, I have urged that greater executive 
power and responsibility be placed upon the Governor, 
not to establish but to prevent autocratic rule, by 
giving to the people themselves, through their imme- 
diate representative, full control of their own affairs. 
In further recognition of this principle, and of the "stead- 
fast devotion of our people to home rule, as seen in the 
formation and history of our Commonwealth, I earnestly 
recommend that whenever and wherever possible the 
right of local self-government shall be left in or restored 
to her respective cities and towns. 

The concise compact in the cabin of the " Mayflower," 
creating " a civil body politick," made Plymouth a fully 
equipped republic. As the population grew, the little 
bands of people pressed further into the wilderness, 
each under the lead of its clergyman ; and, clustering 
around its meeting-house and school-house, formed in 
every settlement a self-supporting, self-governing com- 
munity. The Puritans followed this example, and so, 
with the cordial approval and God-speed of the General 
Court, Massachusetts grew by what one of her most 
distinguished lawyers ^ happily called a " cellular forma- 
tion. " She grew from her towns quite as much as they 
from her. In his great work upon " The American 
Commonwealth, " Professor Bryce says : " Each such 
1 The reference is to the late Robert D. Smith, of Boston. 



196 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 

settlement was called a Town, or Township, and was in 
fact a miniature Commonwealth, exercising a practical 
sovereignty over the property and persons of its mem- 
bers, — for there was as yet no State, and the distant 
home government scarcely cared to interfere, — but 
exercising it on thoroughly democratic principles. . . . 
And though presently . . . the Legislature and Gover- 
nor, first of the whole colony, and, after 1776, of the 
State, began to exert their superior authority, the towns 
. . . held their ground, and are to this dav the true 
units of political life in New England, the solid founda- 
tion of that well-compacted structure of self-government 
which European philosophers have admired, and the 
new States of the West have sought to reproduce. " ^ 

This right of local self-government, jealously asserted 
by the towns, was ever cheerfully recognized by the 
State. To the present day, in the establishment of a 
town government, the Legislature uses almost these 
identical words of the old colonial statutes: "And that 
the same town be and hereby is vested with all the 
powers, privileges, and immunities that any other of 
the towns in this province do or may by law exercise 
and enjoy." All towns are placed upon an equality, 
based upon the right of home rule. Legislative inter- 
ference with an individual town is a discrimination, 
and manifestly places such town upon an unequal 
footing ; and just to the extent of such interference is 
she controlled by her sister towns. If a town desires 
proper local regulation, she should have the power to 
make it; if she does not, the other towns, through 
united action in the Legislature, should not force it upon 
her, independent of a general policy established by 
general law. 

While the Constitution of 1780 gives the Legislature 

1 Vol. I. p. 562. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 197 

power broad enough to control municipalities and their 
local concerns, it is evident throughout its provisions 
that the framers regarded the towns as the aggregate 
constituting the Commonwealth, and assumed that the 
town right, like the individual right, would be impaired 
only under circumstances of gravest necessity. The 
Bill of Rights secures to the people "the sole and 
exclusive right of governing themselves," and, with the 
Constitution, recognizes the town as the existing 
unit of self-government. In 1820, by amendment to 
the Constitution, authority was given to the General 
Court to erect and constitute city governments in towns 
containing twelve tiiousand inhabitants, but only with 
the consent and upon the application of a majority 
thereof. This amendment was necessary in view of the 
growth of Boston (then having nearly forty thousand 
inhabitants), which made the continuance of the town 
system of legislation and administration impracticable 
and inefficient. Boston, therefore, though with much 
reluctance and considerable opi)Osition, by the accept- 
ance of a cit}^ charter substituted local representative 
self-government for the democracy of the town meeting. 
The change was only one in the form of local self- 
government. It did not alter the relation of the city to 
the Commonwealth. The Legislature delegated none of 
its powers to the city, and the city gave to the Legis- 
lature no greater control over the municipality. The 
delegation of power was by her citizens and to the city, 
not to the State. So the first section of the city charter 
provided that "The inhabitants of the town of Boston 
for all purposes for which towns are by law incorporated 
in this Commonwealth shall continue to be one body 
politic in fact and name, . . . and as Such shall ever 
exercise and enjoy all the rights, immunities, powers, 
and privileges, and shall be subject to all the duties 



198 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 

and obligations now incumbent upon and appertaining 
to the said town. " 

Decisions of our highest court have repeatedly held 
that this change from town to city government was only 
one of form and organization of the municipality, and 
did not affect the extent of legislative control. Chief 
Justice Shaw, who is understood to have drafted the 
city charter of Boston, speaking in the Constitutional 
Convention of 1820 of city as distinguished from town 
government, declared that ""he disclaimed all idea of 
claiming powers or privileges for one class of citizens 
which were not equally extended to another; but an act 
of incorporation is equally enjoyed by all the towns in 
the Commonwealth. . . . Every town is to all substan- 
tial purposes a city. They are towns corporate, having 
the power of choosing their own officers, and sending 
members to the General Court, with jurisdiction over 
all their local and prudential concerns, such as the 
support of schools and highways, the relief of the poor, 
the superintendence of licensed houses, and other 
matters of local police. They have the power of 
making by-laws and assessing and collecting taxes. 
They possess all the powers and privileges of municipal 
corporations in Great Britain or in this country." 
This language was quoted with approval by Chief 
Justice Gray in the elaborate opinion in the case of 
Hill vs. Boston, 122 Mass. 355. 

Until recent years this division of government, 
under which tlie General Court controlled the general 
concerns of the people, and left to each city or town 
control of its local concerns, was with us universally 
recognized and respected, and received the commenda- 
tion of statesmen, historians, and thinkers. Thomas 
Jefferson, when studying the best form of government 
for his native State, turned to New England, and said : 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 199 

"Those wards called townships in New England are 
the vital principle of their governments, and have proved 
themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit 
of man for the perfect exercise of self-government and 
for its preservation. " John Adams, the framer of our 
Constitution, enumerated "the towns, militia, schools, 
and churches as the four causes of the growth and 
defence of New England," and as the place where "the 
virtues and talents of the people are formed." The 
great French student of our institutions, De Tocque- 
ville, writes : " The townships are only subordinate to 
the State in those interests which I shall term social, 
as they are common to all the citizens. They are inde- 
pendent in all that concerns themselves, and among the 
inhabitants of New England, I believe that not a man 
is to be found who would acknowledge that the State 
has any right to interfere in their local interests." 
Again he says: "Municipal institutions are to liberty 
what primary schools are to science: they bring it 
within reach; they teach men how to use and how to 
enjoy it. A nation may establish a system of free 
government, but without the spirit of municipal insti- 
tutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty." Professor 
Bryce describes the town-meeting as " the most perfect 
school of self-government in any modern country." 
John Fiske, in his " Civil Government in the United 
States," declares it to be "the form of government 
most effectively under watch and control." Dr. Pal- 
frey in his History insists that nothing "has had more 
influence on the condition and the character of the 
people through the eight generations of their history." 
Judge Cooley, the learned writer upon " Constitutional 
Limitations," speaks of it as "almost a part of the very 
nature of the race to which we belong." In Elliott's 
" New England " it is said that " The prime strength of 



200 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 

New England and of the whole republic was and is in 
the municipal governments and in the homes." It 
would be easy to multiply such authorities. No 
thoughtful student or reader of our history has ques- 
tioned the value of municipal self-government, or the 
necessity of maintaining it in its full integrity. 

I have called your attention to this familiar })rinciple 
upon which our system of government was founded, 
and has most successfully developed, and the universal 
commendation of it by jurist, historian, and statesman, 
because in recent years a tendency has been developed 
to violate the principle by impairing the right of local 
self-government, especially in the largest city of the 
Commonwealth. The belief is held by some of our 
citizens that if municipal machinery seems for tha 
moment to be out of gear, the proper remedy is not to 
appeal to their fellow-citizens to repair it, but to the 
Legislature to take control of it. But State assump- 
tion of municipal functions cannot be so wholesome, 
just, or effective as self-correction of municipal abuses ; 
and the latter is certain, unless our people have lost 
the capacity and desire for good government and self- 
government. 

While other instances might be given, some of which 
occasioned vetoes of bills passed by your immediate 
predecessors, the most striking illustration of this 
tendency, and the most flagrant violation of this fun- 
damental right, are found in the law of 1885, which took 
into the keeping of the Commonwealth the control of 
the police of Boston. Against the wish of a great 
majority of her citizens and the protest of most of 
her representatives in the Legislature, other members, 
representing constituencies under no pecuniary respon- 
sibility for its support, and no moral responsibility 
for its efficiency, placed the police force of Boston in 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 201 

the hands of State commissioners, and authorized them 
by requisition to compel that city to raise by taxation 
whatever sum in their sovereign judgment was neces- 
sary. Since then the citizens of Boston, representing 
one-fifth of the popuLation of the Commonwealth, have 
had no power whatever over this most important execu- 
tive branch of their government, no voice in the enforce- 
ment of law, the preservation of peace, and the protec- 
tion of life, liberty, and property. Whatever abuses 
may exist, however inefficient, partisan, and scandalous 
such administration may be, however coercive or un- 
principled in its dealings with the interests under 
its control, however detrimental to Boston and the wel- 
fare of her citizens, they must patiently submit to any 
wrongs, content to agitate and protest, powerless to 
remedy or to punish. No self-respecting community 
in the Commonwealth, after living and prospering 
under the blessings of liberty and self-government, 
would permit without emphatic protest such violation 
of their rights; nor is it easy to see why they should 
inflict or tolerate it upon their neighbors. Naturally 
and fortunately, such a wide departure from the spirit 
of our institutions and the teaching of the fathers has 
brought only evil results. A law founded on a mis- 
trust of the people, removing government beyond their 
reach, and officials beyond their control, is certain to 
lead to grave abuses. Such has been our experience 
with State control of the police of Boston. The Board 
of Police by its acts has deservedly lost the confidence 
of the citizens of Boston and of the people of the Com- 
monwealth. I again earnestly recommend the separa- 
tion of the powers of this board ; that the control of her 
police, which is a purely administrative function, be 
restored to the city of Boston; that the control of 
licenses, which is judicial in its nature, be placed in a 



202 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 

board of such character, appointment, and tenure as to 
be judicial in its action. It is within your ])o\ver thus 
to correct a serious evil, do justice to the city of Bos- 
ton, and a service to the whole comnnniity. I shall 
endeavor by executive action to lift this board out of 
politics, and to give assurance to the public that the 
administration of the important interests under its 
control shall be efficient, upright, and free from par- 
tisan perversion. 



EXTENSION OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT AND RELIEF 
FROM SPECIAL LEGISLATION. 

Due regard for the right of local self-government 
requii-cs, not only non-interference by the State in the 
purely local affairs of cities and towns, but also the 
grant to them of greater powers, in order that there 
may be the most successful treatment and control of 
the ever-increasing problems of local concern. Such 
grant would be both a wise and just extension of local 
self-government, and in harmony with what I believe to 
be the sound policy of substituting, wherever possible, 
general laws for special legislation. Something was 
accomplished last year in this direction. General laws, 
providing for the establishment of city governments, 
granting greater powers to local governments in the 
construction of sewers, pensioning of the police, the 
raising of money for celebrations, and the control of 
the streets, were enacted to cover matters which had 
been the subject of many special laws. A reference to 
the Acts of last year shows the need of more legislation 
of this character. Of its four hundred and forty Acts, 
nearly one-third were si)ecial laws passed upon the 
application of tAventy-five cities and eighty-five towns. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 203 

Of these Acts, eighteen were to introduce, increase, or 
improve water supplies, or regulate water rates ; six- 
teen to authorize water debts; nine to refund indebted- 
ness; seven to issue bonds; ten to confirm proceedings 
of town meetings; nine to take land for public pur- 
puses ; seven relating to grade crossings, six to rights 
in bridges, four to fisheries, seven to duties of officials ; 
and there were many others relating to salaries, servers, 
celebrations, and other local matters. There were 
also eighty-seven Acts relating to other corporations, 
including many Acts to give authority to hold additional 
property, increase or reduce capital, issue bonds, sell 
real estate, confirm proceedings, and for the incorpora- 
tion of trust and water companies. A careful examina- 
tion will show, I believe, that the authority and proper 
control of the State can better be exercised over many 
of these matters through general laws, with wise limita- 
tions and official supervision, than by the constant grant 
of special rights, powers, or favors. The incorporation 
of safe deposit and trust companies, like savings and 
co-operative banks, in my judgment should be made by 
general law, under the scrutiny and authority of the 
Savings Bank Commissioners, instead of being, as now, 
a matter of special legislation; and I again recommend 
the passage of such a law. Other corporate matters, 
now the subject of numerous special laws, you may find 
can wisely be covered by general laws. In this connec- 
tion I ask you to consider the expediency of providing 
by general law for the sale of new railroad stock by 
auction, or other disposition of it at its market value, 
where such value is in excess of par, instead of its 
distribution to its stockholders at par, as now permitted. 
My reasons for believing such law to be Avise, just, and 
for the public interest I have fully stated in a special 
message to the Legislature of May 9, 1892, vetoing 



204 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 

"An Act to authorize the Connecticut River Railroad 
Company to increase its capital stock." 

The passage of a general law in reference to public 
water supplies, to regulate grants, to establish proper 
authority to examine and determine the rights of con- 
flicting claimants, and to provide for the broad and 
just treatment of the whole subject, as well as for the 
details of water rates and debts, now the subject of 
special legislation, is each year becoming more urgent. 
But more fundamental and important are the preserva- 
tion and extension of the right of local self-government, 
by the grant under general laws of further powers to 
cities and towns to deal with franchises, taxation, ex- 
tension of municipal work, and other matters of a local 
character, leaving to each community to determine the 
expediency of availing itself of these enlarged powers. 

This principle of home rule, which asserts that the 
highest efficiency, greatest social happiness, and politi- 
cal contentment are obtained by local control of home 
affairs, need not and does not conflict with the estab- 
lishment by the State of a general policy in any field of 
public work, nor Mnth her creation of such machinery 
of local government as she deems expedient. It does 
require that the working of that machinery shall be 
left to the local authority, and be under the check and 
control of the local constituencv. 



METROPOLITAN QUESTIONS. 

Nor does this principle overlook the fact that there 
are public matters, affecting the interests of a number 
of communities, where necessary union of action can 
be accomplished only by the interposition of a superior 
authority. In such cases, in the absence of some com- 
prehensive method of mutual action, State control is 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 205 

necessary. The questions are not local, but metropol- 
itan in their character, and the whole population 
affected must be considered, and made one community 
for their successful solution. The tendency of our 
modern civilization is to build up clusters of commu- 
nities around a central dominating city, each with its 
local needs and aspirations, but these often subordinate 
to its interests as a member of the group to which it 
belongs. This at present is the relation of Boston to 
the surrounding cities and towns, and may soon be the 
position of other fast-growing centres of population in 
this Comomnwcalth. It has led to metropolitan prob- 
lems of great and pressing importance, which have been 
recognized and treated as proper subjects for State 
action, and, therefore, so far as they are still unsolved, 
will demand your most -careful consideration. 

METROPOLITAN SEWERAGE. 

The problem of proper sewerage for the metropolitan 
district along the Charles and Mystic rivers has been 
successfully met by the creation by the State of a 
metropolitan system now under construction. 

METROPOLITAN RAPID TRANSIT. 

Of the metropolitan questions still unsettled, none is 
more important or pressing than that of rapid transit. 
Recently this subject has been carefully and thoroughly 
investigated by a commission created by the Legisla- 
ture of 1891. Its very able and suggestive report, with 
important plans and recommendations, was made to 
the Legislature of 1892, but so late in the session that 
it was deemed best to refer the matter to you. I com- 
mend it to your most careful consideration, in the 
earnest hope that your efforts will result in some solu- 



206 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 

tion of a problem which affects most seriously the con- 
venience, happiness, and welfare of many of our people. 
Cheap and rapid transit for the residents of the metro- 
politan district of Boston is no less important as a social 
and sanitary blessing than as an economic and indus- 
trial necessity. It would surely and effectively tend to 
dissipate the crowded centres of sickness, misery, and 
vice which so readily gather in the hearts of our great 
cities. Make transit to the suburbs easy, swift, and 
cheap, and the squalid tenement-houses of the city 
cannot compete, as experience shows, with the attrac- 
tions of a country home. Life then will be developed 
under conditions more favorable to physical health and 
sound morals, while the central city will be relieved of 
densely populated areas, where disease and crime may 
flourish. To the poor this will give more of fresh 
air and sunshine, cheaper land or rent, and so cheaper 
cost of living, under healthier and happier conditions. 
The industrial gain from better transit is too apparent 
to need extended statement. It means greater facility 
in the transaction of business, and its consequent 
extension ; and to the whole community a saving of time 
and labor, with greater comfort and convenience. 
Sti^eet blockades in Boston, slow transit, insufficient 
accommodations, either in transit or at terminal sta- 
tions, are quite as much an annoyance and loss to the 
residents of the suburban cities and towns as to the 
residents of Boston. Because of this interest of many 
municipalities in the matter, if not their responsibility 
for its solution, it requires treatment sufficiently broad 
to cover the entire field, by an authority which can 
compel concert of action. Under existing conditions 
this can spring only from the State, but it should be 
sustained and enforced by the willing co-operation of 
all the communities interested. The time has fully 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 207 

come for action. Further delay only complicates the 
problem, and makes its solution more difficult and 
expensive. 

METROPOLITAN PARKS. 

Among other metropolitan questions which may soon 
demand attention are those of parks, water supply, and 
highways. Under the provisions of an Act of last year 
a Metropolitan Park Commission was appointed to con- 
sider the advisability of laying out ample open spaces 
for public use in the towns and cities in the vicinity of 
Boston. As required by the Act, the commission will 
early in the present session report a comprehensive 
plan for laying out, acquiring, and maintaining such 
open spaces. The subject is one of great and increas- 
ing public interest. With the opportunity thus to 
improve river basins, protect the sources of water- 
supply from pollution, and guard the public health, as 
well as to furnish to a crowded population breathing- 
spaces for exercise and recreation, the subject not 
merely affects the beauty and comfort of a locality and 
the happiness of its people, but becomes an essential 
factor in the well-being and prosperity of a modern 
city. If anything is to be done, the sooner action is 
taken by proper authority the better. Ample reserva- 
tions, such as the Middlesex Fells and the Blue Hill 
forest, can now be secured at reasonable cost. Unless 
secured now, these and other like tracts may be lost 
by occupation for other purposes, or later can be secured 
only at very great expense. 

METROPOLITAN WATER SUPPLY. 

The subject of a water supply for the metropolitan 
district of Boston, including by that term the territory 



208 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 

within ten miles of the State House, may in the near 
future demand serious attention. The present popula- 
tion of the district is about nine hundred thousand. 
While some places within it have an excellent water 
supply sufficient for many years, yet I am informed by 
competent authority that the total available supply of 
pure water within reasonable distance is probably only 
enough for the consumption and need of a population 
of one million five hundred thousand, which number 
may be reached in fifteen years. In view of future 
necessities, it may seem to you prudent to make now 
preliminary investigations to determine the best source 
of water supply for the entire metropolitan area. 

IMPROVEMENT OF HIGHW^AYS. 

The improvement of our highways is another subject 
which will require your consideration. This, of course, 
is largely a matter of local duty, under the control of 
local authority. But it is also of such general interest 
and importance that the State last year established a 
commission to consider the best and most practicable 
method of construction and maintenance of highways, 
and what legislation is necessary for their improvement. 
The commission will report to you the results of its 
careful, thorough investigation. The evident need and 
demand for the improvement of our highways, and of 
more systematic, uniform methods in their construction 
and maintenance, require careful attention. 

EDUCATION, LABOR, AGRICULTURE. 

These important interests of the Commonwealth, over 
which she has ever exercised watchful care, demand 
and will receive, I am sure, your earnest attention, 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 209 

with every desire to maintain in their full vigor and 
integrity our great institutions, and by wise, progres- 
sive legislation to promote the welfare of the farmer, 
the wage-earner, and all the people. Without repeating 
in detail the recommendations heretofore made by me 
upon these subjects, I refer them to your consideration. 



MILITIA. 

The militia of the Commonwealth has during the 
past year been drilled under the new regulations 
adopted by the general government, and has main- 
tained its efficient condition. It has been proposed 
during the World's Columbian Exposition this year to 
mobilize in Chicago the militia of the country for 
instruction. As yet no definite plan has been formu- 
lated, but it is suggested to muster the troops by a call 
from the President of the United States for a period of 
fifteen days, under command of officers of the United 
States Army, the government to furnish transportation 
^nd rations. I believe such muster, under careful 
regulations, with the necessary preparatory drill and 
discipline, will be of service to our militia, and I urge 
your co-operation in the matter. Should the troops of 
Massachusetts be so mustered, I assume that their 
regular encampment here would be omitted. An addi- 
tion to the annual appropriation will probably be neces- 
sary to carry out the plan. 



LAND REGISTRATION AND TRANSFER. 

I regret that little or nothing has yet been done to 
reform our system of land registration and transfer. 
At present, serious delay and expense, constant re- 

14 



210 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 189a. 

examination, and then possible insecnrity, attend a 
system where freedom, security, and cheapness are 
most desirable and for the public interest. I cannot 
doubt that the ability and ingenuity of our people can 
devise or adapt some system to remedy these admitted 
evils. The Torrens system of registration of titles, the 
general features of which were fully stated by me in a 
message to the Legislature of 1891, has proved to be a 
simple, safe, and admirable plan of land transfer in 
Australia and other countries where it has long been 
used. I commend it to your consideration, in the 
belief that further investigation will show that the 
principles of this system can be adopted here, or at 
least that important changes can wisely be made in our 
present cumbersome methods of land transfer. An 
able commission recently appointed in the State of 
Illinois has recommended the adoption of this system 
there. 

FAST DAY. 

A memorial concerning Fast Day, signed by promi- 
nent representatives of religious denominations and 
colleges within the Commonwealth, was submitted to 
the last Legislature late in its session, and by it 
referred to you. It is worthy of your careful consider- 
ation. Massachusetts, in her inception, growth, and 
development, as well as in her Constitution, is emjihati- 
cally a Christian Commonwealth. The Bill of Rights 
declares : " It is the right as M^ell as the duty of all men 
in society publicly and at stated seasons to worship the 
Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the 
Universe." True to the religious character of their 
origin, and in accordance with the union of Church 
and State which they established, and which for a half- 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 211 

century in a mild and tolerant form existed under our 
Constitution, our pious fathers with entire unanimity- 
early instituted the custom of setting apart annually by 
public authority a day to be observed as " a day of public 
fasting, humiliation, and prayer to Almighty God." 
Each year the Governor, with the advice and consent 
of the Council, appoints this day, and requests its due 
and appropriate observance by the people, and the 
statute provides that all public business shall be sus- 
pended thereon. But in the progress of time, with its 
changes of custom and feeling, in the growth of the 
Commonwealth with diversity of religious sentiment 
and of race, in the entire separation now of Church and 
State, or perhaps for the better and higher reason of a 
more general observance of the great and solemn 
historic fast of the universal Church, or of others sug- 
gested by deep religious sentiment according to the 
dictates of conscience, — whatever the cause, the fact is 
clear that the annual State fast has come to be gener- 
ally disregarded, or deflected from its original and 
grateful purpose. It has become little else than a 
holiday. It seems inconsistent with sound public and 
religious sentiment, and almost irreverent, to require 
a day to be set apart by public proclamation to a most 
solemn purpose, when it is well known that it will not 
be so observed. I therefore suggest whether you may 
not properly sever the secular duties of the State from 
the spiritual obligations of the churches and the people 
by providing another legal holiday in the spring of the 
year, leaving to voluntary action the recognition and 
reverent observance either of the religious fast of Good 
Friday, or of such other day of fasting, humiliation, 
and prayer as the various churches and religious com- 
munities in the Commonwealth may at any time appoint 
for themselves. To accomplish the change it is only 



212 INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 

necessary to strike out the words " fast day " from our 
existing statutes prohibiting or regulating public or 
other business on holidays. After such legislation the 
Governor and Council no doubt would assume that they 
were not required to appoint such day. In its place 
as a spring holiday I would recommend the selection 
of the historic 19th of April. 



RECIPROCITY WITH CANADA. 

The establishment of closer trade relations between 
the United States and the Dominion of Canada is a 
matter of much importance to this Commonwealth. On 
few subjects is there a stronger interest or greater 
unanimity of sentiment among our citizens. To our 
manufacturers and merchants it will give the oppor- 
tunity for a large extension of trade, by opening to 
them an important and profitable market, and an abun- 
dant supply of the raw materials necessary for our 
various industries. A broad measure of reciprocity 
with Canada would make Massachusetts, and especially 
Boston, the industrial and commercial centre of a 
greatly enlarged territory, add to our prosperity and 
wealth, and to the welfare of our people. While the 
settlement of the question is beyond your power, I 
believe it would be both proper and wise to express to 
Congress by resolution this opinion of Massachusetts 
upon it. 

Senators and Representatives : We meet at a time of 
useful agitation, when more than ever the people are 
discussing political, industrial, and social questions 
with searching intelligence and fearless independence. 
Appreciating the importance of these matters to their 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR, 1893. 213 

welfare, and the power of government over them, the 
people rightly demand that as far as public authority 
undertakes to act, its power shall be used in their 
interest, and be kept under " their watch and control. " 

We, as their representatives, are confronted not only 
with old and difficult, but with new and unsolved prob- 
lems. To their consideration, however our opinions 
may vary, I doubt not we shall bring honest conviction, 
patriotic purpose, and a sincere desire to promote the 
public welfare. Under such influences, with due 
regard for the needs of the present, but also for the 
conservative principles and practical wisdom of the 
past, led by the " kindly light " which the Supreme 
Lawgiver ever vouchsafes to his dependent children, 
let us step forth into this new year with hope, courage, 
and enthusiasm to meet the new duties and the new 
responsibilities. 

God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and 
keep us steadfast in her service ! 



MESSAGE 

VETOING AN ACT RELATIVE TO PERSONS EMPLOYED 
IN THE FIUE DEPARTMENT OF BOSTON. 

Executive Department, Boston, March 27, 1893. 
To THE Honorable House of EEPRESENTAxn'^ES : 

I RETURN herewith with my ohjcctions a bill entitled 
''An Act relative to Persons employed in the Fire 
Department of the City of Boston," which originated in 

your body. 

This bill applies to a single executive department of 
a single city of the Commonwealth, and undertakes to 
regulate therein an important detail of administration, 
which is at present wholly controlled by the executive 
authority of said city, and so by her citizens them- 
selves. A general law, enacting the provision of this 
lull as a general policy for the State, applicable to all 
her cities, has been defeated by this Legislature. 

I fully sympathize with the desire of the Legislature 
to lessen the hours of labor in this department, but I 
do not believe in the principle that the State, even to 
accomplish a desirable end, should interfere with the 
rio'ht of local self-o-overnment bv the city of Boston or 
by any other community, oi- should undertake by special 
law to control a department thereof, or to regulate its 
details. 

Against such interference I have constantly pro- 
tested, both by recommendation and veto, frequently 



FIRE DEPARTMENT OF BOSTON. 215 

declaring that the right of local self-government " should 
be carefully conserved," and recommending "that 
whenever and Avherever possiljle this right should be 
left in or restored to her respective cities and towns, " 
and that "as far as possible every local community 
should be left to govern itself, and to determine for 
itself questions of administration and public policy 
which affect its interests." I have earnestly urged 
that the control of the police, of which she has been 
most unjustly and unfortunately deprived, should be 
restored to the city of Boston. I am quite unwilling to 
sanction an attempt by the State to direct another of 
her departments, or to interfere with its control by the 
proper local authority. I can think of no department 
in which the citizens of Boston just now have a keener 
interest, or over which, through their chosen servants, 
they should have a more direct and unhampered con- 
trol, than their fire department. They know its needs 
and its wishes, and are vitally interested in its efficiency. 
They appreciate, I believe, the labor, danger, and 
faithful service of the men in this department, and are 
ready to grant them such relief from constant duty as 
is consistent with the public interest and safety. 

Of these matters they are most competent and 
responsible to judge. I sincerely trust that their 
opinion, expressed through their officials, may agree 
with the opinion expressed by the Legislature in this 
bill; but I am unwilling, by approving the bill, to say 
that they shall have no power to control this matter, 
or that a hard-and-fast rule shall be laid down for 
them in the administration of this department, which, 
if adopted, places the matter beyond their discretion 
and supervision. 

Nor does it obviate this objection that the Act does 
not take effect until approved by the mayor and city 



216 FIRE DEPARTMENT OF BOSTON. 

council. If this leaves to them the same power they 
now have, then the Act is wholly unnecessary. If it 
does not, then it is an interference with the right of 
local self-government. It is clear, however, that if 
approved, the control of an important part of this 
department will not be within the discretion, as now, of 
the city of Boston, but will be defined by statute, which 
can only be changed by the Legislatui-e. The amended 
charter of Boston places this department under the 
executive of the city, who is immediately responsible 
to the people, and subject to their control. Without 
any petition or request from him or the city council, 
or the department itself, but against the protest of 
the authorities in charge, this bill has been passed. 

I regret to differ from the Legislature in this matter. 
The end desired commends itself to my sympathy and 
judgment. 

The general tendency to shorten the hours of labor 
and improve the condition of all wage-earners has 
constantly received my official recommendation and 
approval. I shall be glad to co-operate with you in 
any wise measure or general policy, consistent with 
public interests, in this direction. But 1 believe it 
important also, as urged in a former message to the 
Legislature, " jealously to guard the right of local self- 
government, preserve it when possible, and restore it 
where necessary. " 



MESSAGE 

VETOING THE ACT TO INCORPORATE THE TOWN OF 
EAST LONGMEADOW. 

Executive Department, Boston, May 5, 1893. 
To THE Honorable Senate: 

I HEREWITH return, with mj objections, the bill 
entitled "An Act to incorporate the Town of East 
Longmeadow," which originated in your body. The 
bill provides for the division of one of the oldest and 
best of the towns of the Commonw^ealth, against the 
earnest protest of the inhabitants thereof twice for- 
mally expressed by a very large majority. Amend- 
ments to the bill providing that it shall take effect only 
when accepted by a majority, or even by one-third of 
the voters of the town, have been rejected. The evident 
and earnest wish of the town upon the vital question 
of its continued existence, in my judgment should be 
decisive in the absence of strong reasons justifiying its 
forcible division. I have carefully examined, there- 
fore, the reasons urged for such action, the conse- 
quences which w^ould result, and the general policy of 
the Commonwealth upon the subject. 

I find that it is the established policy of this Com- 
monwealth, as evidenced by its legislation for many 
years, to allow each community to decide for itself this 
question. 

Usually the village seeking separate incorporation 
has come to the Legislature after formal application 
to the parent town and with its consent. While cases 



218 ACT TO INCORPORATE EAST LONGMEADOW. 

may arise of such injustice and hardship that it is 
impossible to obtain such consent, and nevertheless 
inexpedient to deny the application, yet the instances 
have been very few where the Commonwealth has been 
willing to overrule the expressed wish of the community 
interested, and to disregard this right of local self- 
government. 

During the last fifty years, while there have been 
over one hundred and fifty petitions for town divisions, 
but five towns have been divided against their will. 
Forty-six have been divided with their own consent, 
and one hundred applications have been opposed and 
defeated. This very town of Longmeadow was set off 
from Springfield one hundred and ten years ago, with 
the consent and by the vote of Springfield. During 
the last thirty years but one town in its county has 
been divided, and then by vote of the parent town. 
This almost unbroken record of refusal by the Com- 
monwealth to divide towns against their will makes it 
necessary, in my judgment, to prove strong reasons to 
justify such action. I do not find such reasons in this 
case. 

It appears that the town consists of two villages 
some three and one-half miles apart, and quite distinct 
in the life and occupation of their inhabitants. But 
this fact is true of numerous towns ; and if suflficient to 
justify a forcible division of a town, would lead to end- 
less subdivision of communities into small political 
units, where, if not constant friction, there would be 
diflficulty and embarrassment in proper concert of 
action, the more necessary as better means of communi- 
cation and common public interests in schools, institu- 
tions, etc., are bringing the people closer together. The 
town of Falmouth, for example, consists of seven or 
eight different villages, many of them clearly separated 



ACT TO INCORPORATE EAST LONGMEADOW. 219 

by natural conditions and the life and occupation of 
their people. This would hardly justify the creation 
out of it of seven or eight towns, especially against the 
overwhelming protest of its people. I do not find in 
the case of Longmeadow any course of conduct by the 
majority towards the minority which constitutes a 
grievance and justifies a separation. There appears to 
have been no unfair division between the two villages 
of the burdens and benefits of their town government, 
or of their town officers, no excessive tax-rate or valua- 
tion, and no injustice in the holding of their town 
meetings. On the contrary, its tax-rate has been low,, 
much below the average of the Commonwealth, and the 
lowest in its county. I am informed that no complaint 
has ever been made to the assessors, of unequal or 
unjust valuation, and that the petitioners have asked for 
no appropriation from the town which has not been 
granted, and have, through their counsel, admitted at 
the hearing a year ago that they came to the Legisla- 
ture without a grievance. 

Except upon the question of division, the inhabitants 
of the town seem to have lived happily and prosper- 
ously together for more than a hundred years. 

It further appears that if this bill is enacted, among 
the results which follow will be, — 

First, The division of a town at present below the 
average of the towns of the Commonwealth in popula- 
tion, area, polls, and voters, and below the average 
population of the nineteen towns of its county. 

Second, The creation of a town with a population of 
only five hundred and seventy, and a little over one 
hundred voters, and without a single industry, — a town 
smaller than any in Bristol, Norfolk, and Essex coun- 
ties, or, with six exceptions, in Plymouth, Worcester, 
and Middlesex counties. 



220 ACT TO INCORPORATE EAST LONGMEADOW. 

Third, That there will be great inequality made by 
the division in the burdens of taxation and town 
government upon the two villages; that substantially 
the whole of the bank and corporation tax will go to 
the smaller village, and will be sufficient to pay for the 
care of its highways, schools, and poor; that, on the 
basis of past expenditure, the tax-rate of the smaller 
village can be reduced from ^9.50 per thousand to 
about i4, while the tax-rate of the larger village would 
be increased to over SI 3. 

The Commonwealth is asked, therefore, against the 
emphatic protest of this town, to interpose her superior 
authority, and forcibly to divide it, with no substantial 
grievance as the basis of such action, but with the cer- 
tainty that there will result great inequality in the bur- 
dens upon the separated villages. 

I believe such action is not only contrary to a sound 
and well-established policy of the Commonwealth, but 
also to a just and healthy public sentiment, which seeks 
to lessen rather than increase the great inequality in 
taxation and in the public burdens and benefits between 
different localities. 

While the rights of a minority in any community 
should be carefully protected and upheld, the rights of 
a majority in such community are also entitled to 
respect. Among these is the fundamental right, if not 
forfeited by their own misconduct or controlled by a 
supreme public necessity, of preserving undivided and 
unimpaired their town existence, with its history and 
traditions, its long and honorable life. 



POLITICAL SPEECHES. 



SPEECH 

AT MIDDLESEX COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CLUB, BOSTON, 

MARCH 5, 1885. 

THE time has come when it is my duty and pleasure 
to ask your attention to the words of wit and 
wisdom, of congratulation and counsel, which always 
flow at Democratic love-feasts to temper the digestion, 
but which also, by reminding us of the principles, history, 
and purposes of our party, strengthen our loyalty to it, 
and make us proud of the faith that is in us. Before 
I call upon those whose familiar voices are old friends 
to you, and to the party in its battles are the " bugle 
blasts" that are "worth a thousand men," will you 
pardon me if I inflict myself upon you. 

For the honor of presiding over this club, I am deeply 
grateful. Kindly overlooking my many faults, you 
have chosen me, I presume, because you thought the 
honor might well be given to ripe old age spent in 
party service, and you knew of none older in the faith 
than one who was born a veteran Democrat. I only 
ask that the same kindness which has chosen me to 
this office may bear gently with me while I endeavor 
to discharge its duties. 

As to-day our party nationally assumes power and 
responsibility, passing from opposition and criticism 
to the duty of legislation and action, it is most fitting 
that the Democrats of old Middlesex should meet and 



222 MIDDLESEX COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CLUB. 

oro-anize to hold up the hands of the administration. 
I believe that a " decent respect to the opinions of man- 
kind " requires our party everywhere to declare what 
it believes to be the princijjlcs and policy that will 
govern its administration. It is no time for a doubt- 
ing, hesitating, halting policy. There are promises to 
be kept, professions to be lived up to, grave questions 
to be met by wise and prudent statesmanshij), and the 
living principles of Democracy to be ordained as law, 
— all fur the honor, peace, and prosperity of a happy, 
united country. Speaking for the Democrats of Middle- 
sex county, I do not believe that their idea of Demo- 
cratic administration and statesmanship is to stop by 
the wayside to gather in the spoils, but rather to march 
on, under our fearless, honest President, to make a 
party victory the country's good. 1 appeal to the 
patriotism of our party that in 1860, under the lead 
of Douglass, passed from power rather than extend a 
National evil ; that in 187(3, when Tilden was elected 
President, gave up power rather than disturb a Nation's 
peace, — I appeal to that patriotism to listen to a just 
public sentiment that asks for an unselfish adminis- 
tration. I believe our party will serve the country 
rather than itself, and legislate for the " silent suffer- 
ing many " rather than devote its whole energy to 
reward the eager few. There are many offices that 
shape and execute the policy of an administration that 
should be filled by its friends, many that have been 
used for "offensive partisanship" that should be 
emptied of men who have forgotten to be servants of 
the people. But to make the whole civil service the 
spoils of victory is to perpetuate an evil we have 
fought for years, a principle that obstructs legislation, 
and a practice that has developed a feudal system of 
political servitude. Let Massachusetts Democrats still 



MIDDLESEX COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CLUB. 223 

demand, as in 1882, that " fitness, not favor, should be 
the passport to public service," still demand " a system 
of civil service established by law, protected by law, 
that, like government itself, it may be the agent of 
law, and not of men ; to the end that it may be kept 
free of all corrupting dependence upon political favor 
and patronage," and again, "favor the principles" of 
the legislation that seeks to cure this evil by enacting 
into law the tests that Jefferson first stated and 
adopted. 

Then our grand old party, filled with patriotism and 
unselfishness, is ready to enforce the ideal of Jeffer- 
son, — "a wise and frugal government, which shall 
restrain men from injui'ing one another, shall leave 
them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of 
industry and improvement, and shall not take from the 
mouth of labor the bread it has earned. " 

Let us be Bourbons in our love and devotion to 
Democratic principles, traditions, feelings ; but ever 
remember that our party to-day are, in the words of 
Macaulay, " legislators, not antiquaries ; " that it is 
time for us to pay a rational and manly reverence to 
the old founders of our party, not by superstitiously 
adhering to what they in other circumstances did, but 
by doing what they in our circumstances would do. 

Gentlemen, I proi)Ose a health to President Cleve- 
land. May God bless and prosper him, and may the 
Democracy stand true to him, and he to it, as with 
honest purpose and unflinching courage he gives to the 
country the blessing of a Democratic administration. 



SPEECH 

AT UNION MEETING OF DEMOCRATS ANT) INDEPEN- 
DENTS, AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON, OCT. 25, 1886. 

AS I stand here to-night, a Democrat, speaking to 
Democrats, and to men whose conscience party 
could not bind, — men who carry their sovereignty 
each under his own hat, — there comes vividly back to 
me the stirring words. Sir, with which you opened a 
similar meeting on the eve of the great battle of 1884, 
"This is a union meeting;" and, as you spoke, the 
minds of your hearers went back to war days, when 
principle was placed above party, and patriotism above 
partisanship. 

You fought the campaign of '84 upon that basis. 
All the signs foretell the same crisis, the same neces- 
sity for patriotic, unselfish action in '88. It was a 
crisis made by the personality of the candidates, — a 
brave, honest, vigorous man, who had been tried and 
found not wanting, against a schemino:, unscrupulous, 
and dangerous politician. The one has been further 
tried, and his work proves his fidelity to his principles 
and his pledges ; the other is still actively, and, we fear, 
successfully scheming. It is time that the voice of 
this Commonwealth was heard. If she speaks in no 
uncertain tone, she can to-day remove this issue from 
the fight of '88. A Democratic victory won in Massa- 
chusetts rings the death-knell of Blaine and Blaineism, 
and gives to President Cleveland the God-speed he 
richly deserves. Aside from that issue, the campaign 



MEETING OF DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS. 225 

in Massachusetts this year is on a broader basis than 
the personality of the candidates. The candidates fitly 
represent the position and principles of their parties. I 
do not speak to-night so much for Andrew ^ as for what 
he represents. We who are Democrats heart and soul, 
in thought, belief, and feeling, rejoice that there are 
many others who, not by personal preferences only, but 
by political faith, are led along the pleasant paths of 
Democracy. Our union is not for the triumph of any 
man, but for the triumph of ideas ; for a living faith, 
a progressive spirit. It is of that to-night I speak. 

It has often been said that there was little difference 
between the two parties. Perhaps that was the criti- 
cism of honest men, whose earnest desire for honest 
candidates led them to look no farther. To-day every 
intelligent man in Massachusetts knows that there is 
a wide difference between the parties, — all the differ- 
ence that there is between standing still and movino- 
forward. I do not believe that this difference is acci- 
dental. It is the natural evolution of the history and 
purpose of the parties. A political prophet of a gener- 
ation ago, who knew this history, who had studied the 
Democratic faith, had seen the birth of the Republican 
party and its purpose, could have predicted the position 
of the parties to-day. The Democratic party is old 
enough to have outlived and defeated all other parties, 
young enough to represent the progressive spirit of 
to-day. It must be founded on vital principles and 
have a living faith. Its creed from its first to its 
thirty-ninth article is an abiding trust in the people, a 
belief that men, irrespective of the accident of birth 
or fortune, have a right to a voice in the govern- 
ment that rules them. Its principles are the equality 
and freedom of all men in affairs of State and before 

1 Tlie Democratic candidate for Governor. 
15 



226 MEETING OF DEMOCEATS AND INDEPENDENTS. 

the altar of their God, — that there should be allowed 
the greatest possible personal liberty, that a govern- 
ment least felt is the best, that it should lightly and 
never unnecessarily impose its burdens of taxation and 
restriction, that in its administration there should be 
simplicity, purity, and economy, and in its form it 
should be closely within the reach and control of the 
people. It preaches home rule, — home rule that 
objects to the strong arm of government with its troops 
reaching into the States to control their elections; — 
and the voice of Massachusetts, irrespective of party, 
has been heard to sustain this principle ; home rule that 
objects to the government with its subsidies controlling 
education in the States, while it saps local energy and 
industrv: a Blair educational Bill or a Blaine retail 
taxation and wholesale distribution measure is a viola- 
tion of this principle. So, on principle, we object to 
State control of local police, or the refusal to allow our 
cities and towns to settle the liquor question each for 
itself. Only an overwhelming public necessity can 
justify a metropolitan police bill or a general prohib- 
itory law. 

These, as T understand it, are the principles and faith 
of my party. They are applicable to every time and 
to nearly every public question, — living principles, a 
living faith. Turn now for a moment to the history 
of the Republican party. It was born of a great and 
glorious agitation, to perform a great and glorious 
mission. It had no other purpose. It did its work, 
and it did it well. It had no other work to do. There 
gathered about it, as the party in power, selfish, corpo- 
rate, special interests, demanding, in return for their 
support, legislation for their benefit. Special interests 
were protected, the public lands were given awaj', the 
civil service was made a Republican machine, and the 



MEETING OF DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS. 227 

people were forgotten. It became corrupt, incompetent 
in administration, aimless in its purpose. It drifted 
with its mission ended, and with no fixed principle to 
guide it. It tried reform within the party, and ended 
by driving its reformers out. Again and again it has 
tried to lift itself to some higher moral plane, and has 
succeeded only in driving away its men of conscience. 
No wonder to-day it is standing still, stock still, and 
seems dead, stone dead. 

Take any question of to-day. State or National, 
which divides the parties, and see if the issue is not 
between progress and stagnation. I do not propose 
to-night to discuss in detail these questions, but only 
by them to illustrate my proposition. The great 
National questions to-day before the people are tariff 
and civil service reform, and possibly, if it be the will 
of the Republican party, an issue on the South. The 
great State questions are labor and prohibitory 
legislation. 

Blaine and Sherman, after two severe defeats, are 
again marching the Republican party under the stand- 
ard of the bloody shirt. The people have welcomed back 
the South to the Union, and our sisterhood of States 
is reunited in unquestioned love and loyalty; but the 
Republican party would live over again the war, would 
forget the dying words of peace and union of the great 
commander, the thousand acts of fraternity, charity, 
and love that bind the North and South together. 
The person or party who would, for partisan purposes, 
disturb that union, is taking a backward and a disloyal 
step. The cry of a suppression of the vote in the 
South is only the wail of bitter disappointment. It 
assumes as a fact that the negro is without independent 
political convictions or judgment, is bound in servitude 
to the Republican party, in place of the servitude from 
which it helped to release him. Here with us to-night 



228 MEETING OF DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS. 

is evidence enough that so many colored men do not 
mean so many Republican votes. The Southern ques- 
tion has been settled on the Democratic principle of 
home rule. It is time for the Republican party to 
accept the fact and to move on. 

Take as a further illustration of my proposition, 
reform of the civil service. For many years both 
parties have known and advocated the necessity for 
this reform. With our one hundred thousand office- 
holders it has become of vital importance that the 
offices should be a public trust, and their occupants not 
an army to wage war through them on the political 
convictions of half the people. 

The Republican party had the power to accomplish 
this reform. Instead, it carried on a merciless pro- 
scription. It made the great administrative offices of 
the country hotbeds of political activity to control the 
will of the people and to corrupt the public service. It 
established a feudal system of political bosses. Four 
hundred and ninety-nine of every five hundred people 
in this country are not and cannot be office-holders. 
They are interested only in having the offices faithfully, 
honestly, and economically administered. The country 
demanded this ; the parties promised it. The Demo- 
cratic party gave to the country (trover Cleveland as 
its pledge that it meant what it said. He had told the 
truth. He would live up to the truth if elected. He had 
been tried and tested, and had stood the test. He has 
had the courage, the will, and the honesty to enforce the 
policy of our party. He has redeemed our pledges with 
an unselfishness and a patriotism equalled only by that 
of our party in 1876, making the reform a reality, 
and lifting the many offices of the country out of 
the sphere of politics. He has made offensive parti- 
sanship in office a thing of the past, enforced the Demo- 
cratic doctrine of fidelity, honesty, and economy in the 



MEETING OF DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS. 229 

public service, and immeasurably raised the standard 
of public life. 

Has not Cleveland appointed Democrats to office ? 
Of course he has, and undoubtedly will appoint more. 
The very stability of the reform depends upon departi- 
sanizing the civil service. Has he not made some mis- 
takes in his appointments ? Perhaps he has ; but he 
has made a character for his administration that, like 
the character of an honest man, explains and redeems 
a mistake. 

The Republican party stands criticising, ridiculing, 
and obstructing. Of what use is it for that party to 
make fair promises, if it opposes their fulfilment? The 
Republican party is standing still, while the greatest 
administrative reform of a generation is moving on. 

Take reform of the tariff as another illustration. It 
is now 1886, and not 1861. There is now no war. A 
straitened treasury is changed to one overflowing with a 
hundred millions of surplus. There is no need of war 
taxation. Infant industries have become full grown 
and settled. There have come great wealth and grossly 
unequal distribution of it. Contented labor has become 
discontented, and justly discontented. There has arisen 
an earnest protest against legislation for special in- 
terests that enrich the few; a demand for legislation 
for the people that shall relieve the many. The tariff 
is taxation, — taxation pure and simple. The Demo- 
cratic party, believing that a government has no right 
unnecessarily to impose its burdens, demands that this 
taxation, — which yields an enormous and unused sur- 
plus, which bears unjustly and oppressively on the 
poor, because it taxes men according to their needs 
and not their property, which, after twenty-six years 
of trial, finds great inequality in the distribution of 
wealth, and the laboring man in discontent and almost 
open revolt, — the Democratic party demands that this 



230 MEETING OF DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS. 

taxation shall be reconsidered, and the people relieved 
of some of its unnecessary burdens. The Republican 
party stands still, boldly advocating continued and 
higher taxation. It does not know that the war is 
over. I never knew a man whose constitution was shat- 
tered by whiskey to be benefited by more whiskey ; nor 
do I believe that the discontent and distress of society 
to-day will be relieved by more taxation. 

But James G. 
Blaine he 
Sez this is his view o' the thing to a T; 

and Ave all know that 

" The world '11 go right ef he hollers out ' gee.' " 

There is no interest either of consumer, wage-earner, 
or manufacturer, as has well been said to-night, that 
will not be benefited by a reduction of taxation. How 
long will a patient people submit to unnecessary, 
unequal, and oppressive taxation ? 

Turn now to questions nearer home, and show me, if 
you can, where there is life in the Republican party. 
What is its position on the question of prohibition ? 
It favors license, and has favored it for ten years; it 
seems to oppose the licensed places. It favors license 
by legislation ; it seems to favor prohibition by consti- 
tution. It could enact prohibition to-day if it wished 
to and had the courage. It dares not take the respon- 
sibility, but postpones the question for three years. It 
is standing still, straddling, stretching to catch the 
votes on cither side. 

There is running through this State to-day a great 
labor agitation caused by discontent and suffering. The 
Republican party is not awake to that agitaticm. It 
never has been awake to the wants and wishes of work- 
ing-men. I know there is some labor legislation in the 
statutes of Massachusetts, legislation suggested and 



MEETING OF DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS. 231 

supported by the Democratic party, and obtained 
grudgingly through the fears of the Republican party. 
It never has willingly given anything that was opposed, 
— it has no real remedy to suggest to meet this agita- 
tion. And yet, with plain hypocrisy, under the lead of 
the most adroit vote-catcher of a generation, the Repub- 
lican party would make a pilgrimage to tlie working- 
man to persuade him that taxation taken out of him to 
benefit the few is the panacea for all his woes. I pity 
the working-man when he leaves the party of which he 
is the backbone, and trusts his interests to its and his 
opponent. 

Mr. Chairman, I have spoken longer than I ought. 
I have preached, I trust, the faith of a progressive 
Democracy. Progress, merely as progress, is nothing; 
but progress that sees the changes of a generation, — a 
blessed, lasting peace in place of the horrors and bur- 
dens of civil war, a reunited, loyal country ; progress 
that hears the demand of the people for pure and 
economic administration, for relief from restrictions 
and taxation; progress that feels the discontent and 
suffering of great masses of the people, — this progress, 
if willing and ready to shape into legislation the new 
wishes and the new wants, rises to the height of 
statesmanship. 

" New occasions teach new duties ; time makes an- 
cient good uncouth ; 

They must upward still and onward who would 
keep abreast of truth ; 

Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ! We ourselves 
must Pilgrims be, 

Launch our ' Mayflower,' and steer boldly through 
the desperate winter sea, 

Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's 
blood-rusted key." 



SPEECH 

AT BALTIMORE, MD., JULY 4, 1888, AS PRESIDING OFFI- 
CER OF THE CONVENTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC 
CLUBS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

FOR the honor and privilege of addressing this 
gathering of Young Democracy I am deeply 
grateful. With earnestness and enthusiasm, with devo- 
tion to the party and its principles, and with unflinch- 
ing loyalty to its glorious leaders, Young Democracy 
meets to-day for organization and action. Gladly it 
volunteers in a campaign where its very faith is at 
stake ; impatiently it awaits the coming of the battle. 

We fight for measures, not men; the principles of 
government, not men's characters, are to be discussed ; 
a nation's policy, not personal ambition, is to be 
determined. 

Thank God, we enter the fight with a living faith, 
founded upon principles that are just, enduring, as old 
as the Nation itself, yet ever young, vigorous, and pro- 
gressive, because there is ever work for them to do. 
Our party was not founded for a single mission, which 
accomplished, left it drifting with no fixed star of 
principle to guide it. It was born and has lived to 
uphold great truths of government that need always to 
be enforced. The influerjce of the past speaks to us in 
the voice of the present. Jefferson and Jackson still 
lead us, not because they are glorious reminiscences, 
but because the philosophy of the one, the courage of 
the other, the Democracy of both, are potential factors 
in determining Democracy to-day. 



CONVENTION OF DEMOCRATIC CLUBS. 233 

Their faith and ours rests upon an abiding trust in the 
people, a belief that power can safely be put into their 
hands, and that the broader the foundation, the safer 
the structure of our government. We believe in the 
freedom and equality of all men in the affairs of state 
and before the altar of their God; in the freedom of the 
individual from unnecessary i-estrictions and unneces- 
sary burdens ; that taxation, with its enormous power 
and burdens, is not to be used to take from one to give 
to another, nor to enrich the few at the expense of the 
many; that of itself it is not a blessing which excuses 
and demands a wild extravagance, but a necessary evil, 
to be lessened by prudence and economy ; that it should 
be levied justly, equally, according to men's means, 
and not their necessities ; upon luxuries that endanger 
the home and the Republic, and not upon those comforts 
that make the humblest fireside more cheerful, and in 
its happiness and strength reflects a nation's prosperity. 

We believe that a government which controls the 
lives, liberties, and property of a people in its admin- 
istration should be honest, economical, and efficient; 
and in its form a local self-government kept near to 
the power that makes and obeys it. To safeguard the 
rights and li])erty of the individual, the Democratic 
party demands home rule. Democracy stands beside 
the humblest citizen to protect him from oppressive 
government; it is the bulwark of the silent people to 
resist having the power and purpose of government 
warped by the clamorous demands of selfish interests. 
Its greatest good, its highest glory, is that it is, and 
is to be, the people's party. To it government is a 
power to protect and encourage men to make the most 
of themselves, and not something for men to make the 
most out of. 

And, lastly, we believe in the success, the glory, and 



234 CONVENTION OF DEMOCRATIC CLUBS. 

the splendid destiny of this great Republic. It leaped 
into life from the hands of Democrats. More than 
three-quarters of a century it has been nurtured and 
strengthened by Democratic rule. Under Democratic 
administrations, in its mighty sweep, it has stretched 
from ocean to ocean, not as a North and South and East 
and West, but now as a glorious Union of thirty-eight 
sovereign States, reunited in love and loyalty, a great 
Nation of sixty million loyal subjects. And now, under 
the last and best of Democratic administrations, the 
courage, fidelity, patriotism, and democracy of G rover 
Cleveland are holding it true to the principles of its 
founders. Patriotism is a thing of action, and not of 
declamation ; loyalty and disloyalty are not proved by 
a sneer. 

The faith we profess is distinctly an American faith; 
the principles we proclaim are distinctly American 
principles, and have been from their first utterance in 
the Declaration of Independence to their latest in the 
platform of the St. Louis Convention ; the policy they 
demand of us as Democrats is emphatically an Ameri- 
can policy. 

Which is the more American policy, — to welcome 
with fraternal love the reunion of the whole country in 
loyalty, happiness, and prosperity, or to stir up sec- 
tional hatred for partisan purposes ? The one is patriot- 
ism, the other steps to the verge of treason. 

Which is the more American policy, to follow the 
path of peace, and endeavor by negotiation, treaty, and 
arbitration to make a fair settlement of international 
troubles, or, in a spirit of bravado, to plunge the Nation 
into war ? 

Which is the more American policy, to hold fast to 
the Constitution, or to violate its spirit and its letter 
by supplanting the rights and duties of the States 



CONVENTION OF DEMOCRATIC CLUBS. 235 

either by force of arms or gifts from the National Treas- 
ury ? The one follows the teaching and policy of the 
past; the other launches us on a sea of doubt and 
danger. Which is the more American policy, to urge 
economy, prudence, and restraint in expenditure, or 
to yield to wild and wilful extravagance, devised and 
demanded only for the purpose of spending ? To 
relieve the people a little of their burdens, or to set 
for them an example of riotous living ? Neither an 
individual nor a nation can be a successful profligate. 
Better sink our surplus in the depths of the sea than 
raise the standard of expenditure, to exhaust in days 
of 'peace the resources needed only — but then how 
sorely needed ! — in time of war. 

Which is the more American policy, to take one 
hundred million dollars, not needed, not used, each 
year from the hard earnings of an industrious people, 
or to leave it with those who earn it, and who best 
can spend it ? To use the power of taxation for the 
interest of the few at the expense of the many, or to 
restrict its use to a Nation's needs ? To give millions 
of the people's money to a class, trusting to its charity 
for a just and honest redistribution, or to leave them 
ungathered in the people's pockets ? We believe that 
legislation should be just, honest, equal to all, and in 
the interest of all, unawed and uninfluenced by selfish 
demands that, like prowling wolves, howl about its 
halls. How well the words of the French philosopher 
define the issue between the parties. "What is law," 
he says, " or, at least, what ought it to be ? What is 
its rational and moral mission? Is it not to hold the 
balance even between all rights, all liberties, and all 
property? Is it not to cause justice to rule among all ? 
Is it not to prevent and to repress oppression and 
robbery wherever they are found? " And he might have 



236 CONVENTION OF DEMOCRATIC CLUBS. 

turned to the Republican party when he added : " Your 
system has written over the entrance of the legislative 
halls these words, ' Whoever acquires any influence 
here can obtain his share of the legalized pillage.' 
And what has been the result ? All classes of society 
have become demoralized by shouting around the gates 
of the palace, ' Give me a share of the spoils. ' What ! 
the law is no longer the refuge of the oppressed, but 
the arm of the oppressor ! The law is no longer a 
shield, but a sword. The law no longer holds in her 
august hands a scale, but false weights and measures. 
And you wish to have society well regulated I " 

Which is the more American policy, to tax luxuries, 
which are allowed to exist only when bound hand and 
foot by law, or to tax the great necessities that make 
life happier in every home in the land ? 

Economy, low taxes, free wool, free lumber, free salt, 
free coal, cheaper necessaries of life, and raw materials 
that quicken industry, we believe to be the true Amer- 
ican policy,' and that the Republican policy of extrava- 
gance, high taxes, free expenditure, free tobacco, and 
free whiskey, is an insult to American intelligence, 
even when supplemented by a plank in favor of true 
goodness and general morality. 

Which, finally, is the more American policy, to 
restrict the inventive genius, the marvellous industry 
and energy of the American people to a home market, 
or with free scope to let them i)lace our Nation at the 
head of the markets of the world, and make her again 
the mistress of the sea ? 

Fellow-Democrats, our faith and our policy rest not 
in declaration, but in action ; in the faithful, fearless 
administration of our glorious President, and in the 
whole life of the old Roman who stands beside him to 
lead us on to victor}-. Cleveland ! What a tower of 



CONVEXTIOX OF DEMOCRATIC CLUBS. 237 

strength there is in that name ! His is the firm hand 
that has maintained the rights and the interests of the 
people against selfish demands from any and from every 
quarter. He has defended the Constitution against 
those who would violate it for selfish purposes. He has 
upheld the honor and patriotism of the soldier against 
fraudulent claims made in the soldier's name. He has 
guarded the people's money against the wild raids 
of selfish schemers. He has improved and uplifted the 
civil service after a merciless partisan proscription 
for a generation, and has immeasurably raised the 
standard of public life. He has stood for " peace with 
honor " against the brag and bluster of reckless parti- 
sanship. And now, in the name of the people and in 
their interest, he demands relief from the burden of 
taxation, and as their champion enters the lists to fight 
the tremendous power of monopolies and trusts. 

"We seek not to make an "uncrowned king " the power 
behind the throne, nor is our talisman to victory "the 
heart of a dead Bruce," to be followed in childish sen- 
timent. We do not kill our Bruce, and then expect 
him to lead us. "The soul of our great leader " is in 
no "golden casket." 

He lives in the faith we profess. He speaks in the 
principles we assert. He leads because we follow 
Democracy, its faith, its principles, and its policy, and 
hail him as the foremost Democrat of the Nation. 
Thus comes victory. Thus victory means something. 
Thus power and responsibility go together, and the only 
influence Ijchind him are the wishes, the rights, and the 
welfare of the great American people. In such a cause, 
with such a leader, there is no room for failure. 

" To doubt wouW be disloyalty, 
To falter would be sin." 



SPEECH 

AT SPRINGFIELD, MASS., JULY 26, 1888. 

FOR your cordial welcome I am deeply grateful. 
I take it not as personal to me, but as evidence 
of your interest in a cam})aign where our faith is 
at stake, and as a sign of your devoted loyalty to our 
party, its principles, its policy, and its glorious lead- 
ers. I have come to-night, not to amuse you with jest 
and story, nor to argue my case with sneers and decla- 
mation, but in a sober, serious way, to discuss the 
great issue of this campaign, and the question that 
just now is agitating the whole nation, and is of prac- 
tical importance to every one of its sixty million 
citizens. If I speak earnestly and emphatically, it is 
because I sincerely believe that every principle of the 
party to which I am proud to give my allegiance is at 
stake in this campaign. The party has always stood 
for the liberty of the individual, for his freedom from 
unnecessary restrictions and burdens, for the equality 
of all men before the law, insisting that the great power 
of the government should be used, not for a class inter- 
est, not for a sectional purpose, but for the interest of 
all, and to protect and guard the rights of the humblest 
citizen. 

We are met by a foe that unblushingly says that the 
greatest power of the government, — its power of taxa- 
tion, — is to be usedp not to meet the necessities of 
government, but to take from one and give to another, 
and to enrich the few at the expense of the many, by 



SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 239 

placing unnecessary burdens and unnecessary restric- 
tions upon all. For a minute let us glance at the history 
of the two parties, and see how they approach this ques- 
tion. The Democratic party has always been the 
people's party, founded on an implicit trust in them, 
and ever ready to defend them, and each of them, 
against any power that dares to infringe upon their 
rights. Under its influence, the first great war of 
this country, after its independence, was undertaken, 
to assert the right of the sailor against a foreign power 
that unjustly dared to impress him into its service. 
Under Jackson the Democratic party waged battle 
against a great corporation and monopoly that was 
undertaking to use the immense power of government 
for its interests against the interests of the people ; and 
that battle, as every such battle when the people are 
thoroughly aroused to their own rights and interests, 
was successfully fought through against one of the 
greatest money powers that this Nation has ever seen. 
Under Democratic rule a second war was begun and 
successfully carried on against a power that dared to 
encroach upon the rights of this Nation ; and, as a 
result, it added to the Nation an almost boundless ter- 
ritory that extended it from ocean to ocean. The 
Democratic party later met and successfully overcame a 
great political party which asserted that there was a dis- 
tinction between our citizens, and that those of foreign 
birth were not entitled to the rights and privileges 
of American citizens. Still later, when corrui)tion 
was stalking abroad in the land, entering the cabinet 
of a President, with its sinister influence controlling 
legislation and disgracing legislators, the Democratic 
party, true to its principles, exposed and fought the 
great scandals which arose from wealthy corporations 
seeking to influence the power of government to be 



240 SPEECH AT SrRINGFIELD. 

corruptly used in their favor. The Credit Mobilicr, 
the Whiskey frauds, the Star Route frauds, are but 
instances of a reign of corruption under Republican 
rule that have made a blot on the history of this 
Nation. Later still. Democracy, under the lead of 
glorious old Thurraan, for the first time brought the 
great Pacific railroad corporations to a sense of their 
obligations and duty to the National Government. 
Time and again the party has stood for the right of a 
State in time of peace to govern itself, and against the 
encroaching power of the National Government. It 
has resisted and forever defeated the odious rule of 
carpet-bag government. And last, but not least, under 
President Cleveland it has again stood for the rights of 
the people against powerful corporate interests, and 
restored to the Nation thousands and millions of acres 
of public lands, to be reserved as homesteads for the 
people, and not to be seized by grasping selfishness. 

In this State the Democratic party has emphatically 
been the people's party, watchful always of the inter- 
ests of the humblest citizens, ever ready to lend its 
mighty influence to help the wage-earners by wise and 
proper legislation, and finally compelling the Republi- 
can party to give to them a small measure of justice. 
Many a time it has fought hard, and often almost with 
success, for the abolition of the poll-tax as a qualifica- 
tion for voting, believing that a man's manhood, and no 
accident of birth or fortune, gave him a right to the 
exercise of political power. It would be strange 
indeed if it had not taken this position. The brawn 
and sinew of the party are the laboring man ; and when 
the party acts, it is the organized action of the plain 
and humble citizens of this Commonwealth. 

For a single minute let us look now at the history 
of the Republican party. It was born, I admit, for a 



SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 241 

great and glorious purpose, — to arouse this Nation and 
to marshal its conscience against the great evil of 
slavery. But when, by the united action of Democrats 
and Republicans, that object was accomplished, and 
the results of the war had been put into the Constitu- 
tion and legislation, the only mission of the Republican 
party was ended, and it would have been well for its 
history if it had then quietly died. As the party in 
power, it soon became surrounded by seljish interests 
that demanded, in return for their support, its services. 
Steadily, year by year, for twenty years, it has been 
driving out of its ranks its leaders and its conscience. 
In 1872 Sumner and Trumbull and Greeley and many 
others who had macle the party famous left it, disgusted 
with the corruption that had followed upon its yielding 
to selfish interests. In 1876 it was found guilty of the 
greatest political crime that has ever been perpetrated 
upon the people of our country. Soon after there began 
to leave it other men for conscience' sake, who organ- 
ized the Prohibitory party, because they believed that 
the day had passed when the old Republican party 
could carry on any great moral agitation or accomplish 
any great reform. 

At last, in 1884, when the Republican party had the 
courage of its audacity, and defied a sound public sen- 
timent, there came another great revolt that finally, and 
I trust permanently, hurled it from power. Year by 
year, and almost day by day, it has been driving from 
its ranks men who had no other thought or wish than 
pure, honest, and unselfish government ; and now, con- 
trolled by sordid influences, it is violating its promises 
to the people, repudiating its past platforms, eating 
its own words, turning its back on the past recom- 
mendations of its present leaders, and is best described, 

perhaps, in the language of a Republican senator from 

16 



242 SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 

Nevvr England, that was not meant for publication, when 
he said it liad become the "huml)le servant of those 
people who have been gathering their millions." 

I charge the Republican party in this campaign with 
hypocrisy, deceit, and a violation of its past promises, 
and out of its own mouth I believe 1 can convict it, 
and at the same time answer the scare it has endeav- 
ored to raise by the cry of free-trade. With this 
as their past history, the two parties approach the 
great question of tariff reform. Surely the natural 
inference would be that the ])eople's party would, by 
its policy, serve the people's interests. 

There are certain facts in this discussion that all 
concede. There is no question that the present tariff 
is a wav tariff, instituted for war purposes, but raised, 
instead of lowered, when that exigency had ])assed. 
There is no question that it is much higher than any 
tariff this Nation had ever known before the war. 
There is no question that before the war industries 
thrived, and great industrial centres like Lowell, Law- 
rence, and Fall River were founded and prosperous, and 
that happiness and contentment i-eigned throughout the 
whole country. Why, the census shows that from the 
years 1850 to 18G0, under almost the lowest tai'iff' that 
the Nation ever had, there was an increase of 90 per 
cent in capital invested in industi-ics. of GO per cent 
in wages, and of 85 per cent in products; while the 
increase from 1870 to 1880, under almost the highest 
tariff, was but 32 per cent in capital, 22 per cent in 
wages, and 27 per cent in products. Since the war it 
is conceded there hos been a reduction in taxation, but 
not in tariff taxation. Those taxes which affected 
especially the rich, and were paid by them, liave been 
gradually taken off; but the taxes which affected the 
humble firesides and the poorer citizens have not been 



1 



SPEFXii AT springfip:ld. 243 

lessened, but, on the whole, have been increased. Inter- 
nal taxes on incomes, corporations, deeds, bank checks, 
have been abolished, and reduction has been made in 
postage-stamps; while the taxes upon the necessaries 
of life, upon raw materials, upon clothing and the 
things every one must have, have gradually been in- 
creased, until, as Mr. Mills said recently in Congress, 
this monument of unjust discrimination has been capj)ed 
by taking off the tax on playing-cards, and putting a 
tariff tax on bibles. 

I said that out of its own mouth I would convict the 
Republican party of hypocrisy and deceit u])on this 
question. I propose to show you that time and again 
the Republican party itself, through its recognized 
leaders, has advocated a reduction of the tariff greater 
and more radical than any reduction now suggested by 
the Democratic party; and 1 cite as my authority the 
last Republican President, the last two Republican 
Secretaries of the Treasury, the author of the present 
Republican platform, and the official acts and utter- 
ances of Republican conventions and Republican 
leaders. In 1882 President Arthur in his message to 
Congress said: "The present tariff system is in many 
respects unjust. It makes unequal distribution both of 
its burdens and its benefits. . . . Without entering 
into minute details, which under present circumstances 
is quite unnecessary, I recommend an enlargement of 
the free list so as to include within it the numerous 
articles which yield considerable revenue, a simplifica- 
tion of the complex and inconsistent schedule of duties 
upon certain manufactures, particularly those of cotton, 
iron, and steel, and a substantial reduction of the duties 
upon those articles and upon sugar, molasses, silk, 
wool, and woollen goods." Pray tell me in what 
respect, except in language, does the recommendation 



244 SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 

of that Republican President differ from the message 
of P]'esident Cleveland when he recommends that the 
"necessaries of life used and consumed by all the 
people, the duty upon which adds to the cost of living 
in every home, should be greatly cheapened " ? And he 
adds : " The radical reduction of the duties imposed 
on raw material used in manufactures, or its free 
importation, is of course an important factor in any 
effort to reduce the price of these necessaries. " 

The last Republican Secretary of the Treasurj-, in 
his report of December, 1884, appreciating what all 
concede, said that there must be a reduction of the 
tariff, and he specifically recommended: "First, that 
the existing duties upon raAv materials which are to be 
used in manufacture should be removed. This can be 
done in the interest of our foreign trade. Second, 
that the duties upon the articles used or consumed by 
those who are the least able to bear the burden of taxa- 
tion should be reduced ; this also can be effected with- 
out prejudice to our export trade. " And he added : 
" The tax upon whiskey could not be repealed without 
a disregard of public sentiment, nor without creating a 
necessity for higher duties upon imported goods." In 
other words, he outlined exactly the main features and 
the policy of the Mills Bill. 

Mr. Folger, Republican Secretary of the Treasury 
under President Arthur, in his message of 1882, 
demanded "that a reduction should be made in the 
revenue from customs." "It is believed," he says, 
"that the time has arrived when a reduction of duties 
on nearly all the articles in our tariff is demanded and 
is feasible. A careful revision of the tariff should be 
made, with a view to placing upon the free list many 
articles now paying a duty." 

Coming now to our own State, let me cite, at the 



SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 245 

risk of wearying you, the views of a few of the recog- 
nized Republican authorities as they existed up to a 
very recent date. And first, who could speak for the 
Republican party with more authority, with more hon- 
esty and sincerity, than Henry Wilson, loved and 
honored by all the people of Massachusetts ? Listen 
to his words: "I think American labor will be best 
protected by taxing all the necessaries of life lightly, 
placing the raw materials which enter into our manu- 
factures on the free list, raising revenue to support 
the government upon articles that come in competition 
with our manufactures, and upon the luxuries of life 
which are consumed by the more wealthy classes of 
society. . . . We want all those articles that enter 
as raw materials into the manufactures of the country 
free of duty, so that the country can stand on an equal- 
ity in the markets of the world with other nations of 
the world. " 

And for more recent authority, though not so great, 
because their opinions seem to vary as the winds of 
heaven, let me cite our own Henry Cabot Lodge and 
John D. Long. As recently as 1884, Mr. Lodge, in 
addressing the Republican State Convention of that 
year, said: "There is a large, perilous, and increasing 
surplus in the revenues. It must be removed ; not by 
needless and extravagant expenditures, not by abolish- 
ing the proper taxation of whiskey and tobacco, but 
by freeing entirely those great necessaries of life which 
enter into the daily consumption of every household, 
and by wise and discriminating reductions." Not 
abolish the proper taxation of whiskey and tobacco, 
Mr. Lodge ? Why, your own National Convention has 
unanimously declared for the abolition of that tax. No 
needless and extravagant expenditure, Mr. Lodge ? 
Why, your own National Convention has specifically 



246 SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 

announced ingenious schemes for just such expendi- 
tures. Free the necessaries of life, and make wise 
and discriminating reductions, Mr. Lodge? Why, your 
own Convention has emphatically turned its back upon 
that policy, and says that the tariff system must not 
be touched. 

Mr. Long, the president of the Republican State 
Convention of 1884, said : " There are only two ways 
to reduce the surplus revenue, — one by raising the 
tariff to a prohibitory height, which nobody advocates ; 
the other, the free list. The free list is the honest 
revenue reformer's hope." A prohibitory tariff nobody 
advocates, Mr. Long? Why, your National Conven- 
tion declares in favor of raising the tariff to a prohibi- 
tory height to check imports and stop revenue. The 
free list the honest reformer's hope, Mr. Long ? Why, 
your Convention denounces and derides it as free-trade, 
and says that the Democratic party in wishing to en- 
large it is unpatriotic and un-American. That State 
Convention of 1884 in emphatic language insisted 
" upon a reduction of customs duties. " Were these 
men honest and sincere in 1884 ? If so, how have 
they now the sublime audacity to charge us with free- 
trade and hostility to American interests and indus- 
tries, and then to dare to appropriate the American 
flag as a party emblem, and to pretend that the glorious 
Stars and Stripes, and what they represent, are not 
still loved and served by all our sixty million loyal 
subjects ? In 1884, they advocated what every intelli- 
gent man knew to be a wise and necessary policy; but 
now, when the necessity is increased tenfold by an 
enormous and constantly growing surplus, they have 
turned right-about-face, and their position to-day is 
"for politics only." 

But I have not quite finished my evidence from the 



SPEECH AT SPRIKGFIELD. 247 

Republican camp. A sbrewd lawyer always saves till 
the last his strongest bit of testimony gathered irom the 
other side. In 1882, under a Republican administra- 
tion, the necessity for a reduction of the tariff had 
become so great, as was generally conceded, that Presi- 
dent Arthur not only recommended it, but also recom- 
mended the appointment of a Tariff Commission which 
should, with the utmost deliberation, examine the 
whole subject, and report to Congress. The appoint- 
ment of that Commission, suggested for the purpose of 
tariff reduction by a Republican President, was sup- 
ported by the Republican party in Congress for the 
purpose of making such reduction. The Commission 
as chosen by him was made up almost wholly of 
Republicans and ex]jerts taken from and representing 
all the great protected industries of the country. It 
was the best exponent and representative of the pro- 
tective system of recent times. Its chairman was 
one of the ablest protectionists in the country and 
the secretary of the Woollen Manufacturers' Associa- 
tion, and its other members were almost equally promi- 
nent in their special interests. For more than seven 
months it held almost daily sessions, visited nearly 
every large city of the country, hearing every interest, 
and collecting a mass of evidence from over six hun- 
dred witnesses that made nearly three thousand printed 
pages, which presented, as the Commission said, "a 
faithful photograph of the various economical opinions 
of the great business centres of the country," Surely 
that was a Commission that would not create free- 
trade. Surely that was a Commission that would have 
an eye, though a selfish one, to protected industries, and 
protected industries only. Now listen while I read a 
few extracts from its report to Congress, made Dec. 4, 
1882. "Early in its deliberations," the report says, 



248 SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 

"the Commission became convinced that a substantial 
reduction of tariff duties is demanded, not by a mere 
indiscreet, popular clamor, but by the best conservative 
opinion of the country, including that which has in 
former times been most strenuous for the preservation 
of our national industrial defences. Such a reduction of 
the existing tariff' the Commission regards not only as a 
due recognition of public sentiment and a measure of 
justice to consumers, but one conducive to the genci-al 
industrial prosperity." And it adds: "Entertaining 
these views, the Commission has sought to present a 
scheme of tariff' duties in which substantial reduction 
should be the distinguishing feature." And the reduc- 
tion advocated was, "Not less on the average than 
twenty per cent; and it is the opinion of the Commis- 
sion that the reduction will reach twenty-five per cent." 
And it suggests that this reduction ])roposed by the 
Commission may "benefit consumers to the extent of 
hundreds of millions of dollars." 

Listen for a minute to some specific reductions advo- 
cated by this Commission. It says: "It has given 
special consideration to the tariff on steel rails. The 
present duty has served its purpose in a protective 
sense. It is now excessive, and should be reduced." 
The reduction advocated was from twenty-eight to 
about seventeen dollars. On co])per, old zinc, and 
other metal it advocated a reduction of the tariff of 
from fifteen to tAventy-five per cent. Prefacing its 
suggestion in regard to wool and woollens with the 
remark that "No part of the existing tariff law has 
been arranged with so much deliberation and care as 
that relating to the manufactures of wool," it says: 
"The Commission proposes a reduction, for the great 
bulk of woollen fabrics, of from eighteen to forty per 
cent, making it so as to apply most effectually to the 



SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 249 

cheaper goods of necessary consumption, with a view 
of benefiting producers as well as consumers ; for reas- 
onable prices to the consumer mean increased consump- 
tion, and of course corresponding increased stability 
and lucrative employment to the producers. " Certainly 
the recommendations of that Tariff Commission, 
appointed by the Republican party in the interest of 
protected industries, are vastly more radical than the 
reductions advocated to-day by the Democratic party, 
and denounced as free-trade by partisan and unscru- 
pulous opponents. 

And what became of this Commission's report, do you 
think? It went into Congress, and there, in the secret 
deliberations of committee-rooms, selfish interests got 
control of legislative action, and instead of a reduction 
of twenty or twenty-five per cent, as advocated, they 
passed a measure actually increasing the then existing 
tariff duties. 

With these facts in mind, let us now take up the 
issue of this campaign. Remember, if there was need 
of tariff reduction in 1884, there is much greater need 
of tariff reduction in 1888. An overflowing and a 
dangerous surplus demands that some remedy should 
be found to stop it. The position of the parties has 
been clearly defined, not by promises or platitudes, but 
by their legislative action and by the explicit declara- 
tions of their party platforms ; and the two parties stand 
radically and absolutely opposed to each other. The 
Democratic party, following the lead of its brave Presi- 
dent, who himself follows in the footsteps of President 
Arthur and Republican officials, leaders, and commis- 
sions, has brought forward a bill for tariff reduction 
Avhich advocates, not twenty or twenty -five per cent, 
but an average reduction of five per cent in the tariff 
duties. If that is free-trade, for Heaven's sake what 



250 SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 

is protection? If that is free-trade, for Heaven's sake 
what was the position of the Republican party in 1882 
and 1884? It is simple nonsense to speak of it as free- 
trade. In their sober moments the Republican leaders 
have laughed at the idea of describing tariff reduction 
as free-trade. Senator Sherman, in 1867, in Congress, 
when not under party pressure, said : " It is simply an 
absurdity to talk now about a free-trade tariff ; and to 
talk about a protective tariff is unnecessary, because 
the wit of man could not possibly frame a tariff that 
would produce !|140,000,000 in gold without amply 
protecting our domestic industries." To-day that tariff 
is producing more than 8212,000,000 in gold. How 
closely his language comes to the language of our Presi- 
dent when in his message he said: "The question of 
free-trade is absolutely irrelevant; and the persistent 
claim made in certain quarters that all efforts to 
relieve the people from unjust and unnecessary taxa- 
tion are schemes of so-called free-traders is mischie- 
vous, and far removed from any consideration for the 
public good. The simple and plain duty which we owe 
the people is to reduce taxation to the necessary 
expenses of an economical operation of the govern- 
ment. . . . These things can and should be done with 
safety for all our industries, without danger to the 
opportunity for remunerative labor which our working- 
men need, and with benefit to them and all our people 
by cheapening their means of subsistence and increas- 
ing the measure of their comfort." 

But the Republicans say that the average reduction 
shows nothing, and that we should consider the specific 
features of the Mills Bill, and those features are a 
reduction of taxation on the necessaries of life and 
upon raw materials. It advocates free lumber, upon 
which there is now a tax of two dollars a thousand ; 



SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 251 

and who is benefited by that reduction? Every one 
who builds a house, every one who leases or occupies a 
lodging, — and that includes every person in the whole 
Union ; every industry in the land that uses lumber 
in its finished product, that has to build its factory, all 
benefit by this reduction of the tariff. And who, pray, 
is injured by it? Why, the Algers and tliose men who 
have made their millions, gathered by taxation from 
you and me and every living soul who has in any form 
to use a bit of lumber. Where lie the interests of the 
people on that question ? There is and can be but one 
answer. And when the Democratic party demands that 
that tax be removed, it is true to the people's interests, 
and it is ur2;in2: a measure for their benefit. 

The Mills Bill provides for free salt. Who is bene- 
fited by that provision? First, every consumer in the 
country ; second, every industry in the country that uses 
salt, — the great meat-packing establishments, the fish- 
packing establishments, and many others that could be 
mentioned. 

The Mills Bill advocates free wool. Is that for the 
interest of the i)eople ? It means cheaper clothing to 
every man, woman, and child in the country. It means 
more than that, — the strengthening, developing, and 
enlarging of the great woollen industries of the country. 
That provision, too, is a benefit not only to consumers, 
but a vast benefit to the industrial interests of the 
country. What better evidence of this could be found 
than that honest, straightforward letter of Mr. Lyman, 
who represents one of the largest industries in the 
Nation, a Republican wdio frankly admits that free wool 
must help the woollen industries, and because of that 
he denounces and repudiates the Republican party 
and its platform. Take as an illustration of the benefit 
that will come to the industries of the country from 



252 SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 

free wool the result that followed from free hides. I 
quote, as evidence on this point, from a most unfriendly 
source. You all know that the " Boston Daily Adver- 
tiser " and the " Evening Record " have for weeks and 
months been scouring around amongst the manufac- 
turers, exciting alarm and endeavoring to scare the 
people into a belief that industries were to be injui-ed 
by the policy of the Democratic party. And day by day 
these papers print interviews with this and that man 
who is willing to lend his aid to this scheme. On 
June 21 the "Advertiser" published an interview with 
a well-known leather dealer who tries to believe that 
free hides have not been a benefit to his industry ; but in 
that interview he says three things : That wages in it 
have increased, that prices have diminished, and that at 
least twenty-five per cent of the leather made in this 
country is now exported; and adds, in answer to the 
question if there have been many failures in his busi- 
ness, " No ; I have heard of but few failures. " That is 
to say, the i-csults that have followed from free hides, 
upon the admission of this unfriendly critic, have been 
higher wages, lower prices, and a large foreign trade. 
And this is exactly what will also follow to the woollen 
industries and to other industries if their raw material 
is given them free, as advocated by the Democratic 
party. It is impossible that it should not be so. With 
cheaper raw material, the finished product is cheaper; 
its cheaper price makes greater demand ; the greater 
demand makes more work and hisher wao-es, and brinofs 
that product into the markets of the world. Instead 
of curbing and restricting our industries to a home 
market, we advocate a policy that will give to them 
almost a boundless market, with increased work and 
increased wages. 

The Mills Bill provides for free copper. Let me take 



SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 253 

a minute of your time to explain that tax. That tax 
of two cents a pound was imposed for the benefit of a 
very few owners of rich copper mines. And what has 
been its effect ? That every man who in his manu- 
factory or in his house is obliged to use a pound of 
copper, pays nearly t^'o cents a pound more for it 
because of that tax. Why, that tax has done much 
to restrict and destroy a great industry along the sea- 
coast in repairing and making vessels. Hundreds 
of shipwrights and caulkers by it have been thrown 
out of employment, because the owners of vessels can 
take them abroad and recopper and repair them there 
cheaper than by doing it here and paying the higher 
price for copper. Meanwhile, the copper owners send 
millions of pounds of our own copper abroad, and sell 
it cheaper in England than they do to our own people, 
still making a profit by selling it there even without 
the additional tax of two cents a pound that Ave have to 
pay. Is there any question in your mind that the great 
bulk of the American people, almost to a man, are to be 
benefited by the removal of that tax, and that it is time 
that the wealthy owners of Calumet and Hecla, who sell 
their ores abroad without the tax and make a profit, 
should give the American people an equal chance with 
their buyers in foreign countries ? 

The Mills Bill provides for free flax. And who is 
benefited by that? Every industry that uses flax in its 
manufactured product, and every consumer in the land. 
Again I quote from an unfriendly source as authority 
for this- statement. The " Evening Record '' of July 
16, 1888, printed a letter from J. R. Leeson & Co., the 
agents for the owners of the large flax-mills of North 
Grafton, Mass., and who also own flax-mills in Scot- 
land. In that letter they state the disadvantages their 
industry here is under, as compared with their Indus- 



254 SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 

try in Scotland. And Avhat are those disadvantages ? 
First, the duty that is now placed upon flax. And in 
that letter they say, "We would earnestly urge that 
our raw material be given to us free from all duty." 
And of the five disadvantages which they specifically 
enumerate that they are under, four will be relieved by 
the provisions of the Mills Bill. 

I might go further into the provisions of this Bill if 
I did not feel that I had already exhausted your 
patience. Let me say briefly that on the great necessa- 
ries of life, like sugar and rice and others, the Bill 
makes a reduction of twenty or more per cent; and all 
the way through its provisions, its governing policy and 
idea have been, while making but an average reduction 
of five per cent in the tariff, — from forty-seven to forty- 
two per cent, — to make that reduction so as to cheapen 
what every man uses and needs, and to build up and 
develop the industries of this country. That is the 
Democratic programme ; not as extreme, by any means, 
as the Republicans have heretofore advocated and 
now abandoned, but all of it wholly and solely in the 
interest of the people, and particularly in the interest 
of the wage-earners. In the light of these facts I have 
a right to say that the Democratic party is the party 
that to-day really advocates the advancement of Amer- 
ican industries, not by throttling them, but by enlarg- 
ing them, cheapening what they require, and opening 
vastly wider fields for them to enter. 

A few words about the Repu1)lican position, and I have 
finished. In every vote of that party in Congress it 
has opposed free raw materials, and in almost every vote 
a reduction of taxation on the necessaries of life. I 
t'lke, however, its programme from the oflficial announce- 
ment of it in the Chicago platform. First, it advo- 
cates lavish expenditures, and proposes schemes to use 



SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 255 

up the surplus that are suggested and devised only for 
the purpose of spending it. It advocates forts and for- 
tifications that may be useless and out of date before 
they are half finished. We believe, as has been said, 
that the defence of this Nation does not rest so much 
in millions and millions spent upon fortifications, as 
upon the three thousand miles of ocean before us, 
and the sixty million sturdy men and women behind, 
ready always successfully to resist any encroachment 
on our territory. There is not a nation that lives that 
dares to put a hostile foot upon our shores. Our oppo- 
nents, however, feeling a little mistrust of their ability 
to use up the surplus, have undertaken to provide a 
plan to stop its accumulation ; and that plan is free 
tobacco and free whiskey, and raising the tariff taxes 
to a prohibitory height, which innocent Mr. Long- 
thought that "nobody advocated." I have shown you 
how contrary to its own past professions that programme 
of the Republican party is. I have quoted from Mr. 
Long and Mr. Lodge how bitterly they were opposed to 
that programme in 1884 ; and I would ask you, if those 
gentlemen happen to stray this way during this cam- 
paign, to put to them the question why it is there has 
come this change in their opinions. 

Two other authorities let me cite from the Republi- 
can party to show the past and present opinion of 
that party upon its present policy. " These taxes " 
(the tobacco and whiskey taxes) said Mr. Sherman 
in 1882 in the Senate of the United States, "ought to 
he left as a part of our permanent system of taxation 
as long as any other taxes, internal or external, more 
oppressive remain on the statute book. This tobacco 
tax, of all others, is the easiest collected, the most cer- 
tain, . . . and a tax which, by the judgment of all 
nations, is the best source of all taxation." And Mr. 



256 SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 

Blaine, in his famous Paris message, said of the whis- 
key tax that it had been a powerful agent in the temper- 
ance reform; that to cheapen the price of whiskey is to 
increase its consumption enormously ; that there would 
be no sense in urging the reform wrought l)y high 
license in many States if the National Government 
neutralizes the good effect by putting whiskey within 
the reach of everyone at twenty cents a gallon; and 
finally he covers the whole question when he says 
that the removal of the whiskey tax would destroy high 
license at once in all the States. Not only that, but 
by removing government supervision over this produc- 
tion, it places the whiskey distillery by the side of your 
church and vour school-house, and does this rather 
than cheapen for the people the great necessaries of life. 
The policy of the Republican party means, first, keep- 
ing the present burdens of over-taxation on sixty 
million consumers; second, restricting and crippling 
industries by failure to give them free raw material; 
third, raising tariff taxation to a prohibitory height 
in many instances; fourth, wild and wilful extrava- 
gance ; fifth, free tobacco and free whiskey and the 
destruction of a powerful agent in temperance reform; 
sixth, the absolute abandonment of the prior declared 
policy of the Eepublican party. And who is benefited 
by this programme? A few already enormously enriched 
by the taxation of the whole people. 

Is it not true that the Democratic party on this issue 
steps forth again as the party of the people, defending 
the people's interests, and that, as Jackson in his 
struggle for the people against a selfish monopoly 
swore by the Eternal that the people's will and the 
people's interests should be followed, so we, follow- 
ing in his footsteps, professing his faith, should also 
swear by the Eternal that the people should have the 



SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD. 257 

right of governing themselves, that their interests 
should rule, and that they who pay the taxes, and not 
the selfish few who gain by the taxes, should deter- 
mine what the taxation should be, and that the money 
so raised should not be squandered by wild extrava- 
gance ? Will you trust the Democratic party in this 
reform, or will you give your allegiance to the party 
which has become " the humble servant of these people 
who have been gathering their millions " ? 

When that quiet, brave, patriotic man, who faithfully 
and conscientiously has been administering the affairs 
of the government for the people against the selfish 
demands of clamorous interests, leads us in this battle, 
is he not leading us in the pleasant paths of Democracy, 
fighting as the people's champion, and making this in 
fact a government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people. God grant him strength in this fight, God 
grant that when the battle has been waged and the vic- 
tory earned, there may be found no Democrat who has 
been faithless in the cause. 



17 



SPEECH 

AT TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON, ON THE TARIFF, 

OCT. 27, U 



THIS greeting comes, I believe, from the heart. It 
is answered from the heart, not as a personal 
tribute, but as proof that we stand together to-day 
fighting the people's cause, serving the people's inter- 
est, loyal every one of us to a glorious President in his 
effort to lift a little the burden of unnecessary, unequal, 
and unjust taxation. I say unecessary taxation. It 
has rolled up in the treasury vaults more than one 
hundred millions of idle dollars taken from trade, from 
business, from wages, lying there as a constant tempta- 
tion to jobbery and corruption. Unequal taxation: it 
bears most heavily on the poor. It taxes consumption, 
not wealth ; it taxes men, not according to their prop- 
erty, but according to their necessities. Unjust taxa- 
tion : because it seeks to warp the power of government 
for the benefit of the few against the interests of all 
the people, — to l)uild up the fortunes of the few, and 
then trust to their charity for a just and equal distri- 
bution. I know that this is neither the time nor the 
place for a long discussion of the tariff question. This 
is the time, and this is the place, to state what the 
issue is, and to expose the false issues of this campaign. 
Democracy takes its stand upon the issue of relieving 
the people from taxation. It maintains that the tariff 
is a tax that raises the cost of articles taxed, whether 
they come here or are produced here ; and it cites for 



TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON. 259 

its evidence the confession of the protected industries 
in 1882, which then, through their Tariff Commission, 
admitted that the reduction of thirty-five million dollars 
of tariff duties would benefit consumers by hundreds 
of millions of dollars. Tell me the tariff does not raise 
prices. Let my Republican friends answer that con- 
fession of the protected industries. But to-day the 
Republican party boldly avows that it will uphold 
this high tariff, not to raise revenue, but for the declared 
purpose of raising prices. If it raises prices, then it 
raises the cost of living, then it enters every home, 
reducing its comforts, making less bright the humble 
fireside. That is the burden of high-tariff taxation. 
Show me an equal benefit, and I will consent to bear 
the burden. Where is the benefit that compensates 
for that burden placed on the people of the country ? 
They say it benefits industries. My friends, I maintain, 
and have maintained on every stump in this State, that 
much of this high-tariff taxation stands as an actual 
burden on industries; and just where its burden is, the 
Mills Bill and the Democratic party propose to relieve it. 
Follow me for a moment in my pilgrimage through the 
State. I went to the little town of Bridgewater, and 
what did I find there ? The Bridgewater iron works 
with their fires out, their industry killed. How? By 
a high-tariff tax on its pig iron and its coal ; and hun- 
dreds of men out of employment in that little town 
can testify to the crushing effect of high-tariff taxa- 
tion. I went to the little town of Sandwich, and what 
did I find ? Its glass industries, thriving under a low 
tariff, declining under a high tariff, dead, to-day. 
Why ? Because of high-tariff taxation on coal and on 
the raw material that enters into glass-making. *^ I j 
went to Gloucester, and what could I show to those J 
fishermen of Gloucester ? That high-tariff taxation / 



2G0 TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON. 

had diminished the foreign shipping of this Nation from 
two million five hundred thousand to less than one 
million of tonnage since 1860. It is dying. Why? 
Because of the burden, the restrictive burden, of hiirh- 
tariff legislation. Then I went to Fitchburg, to the 
iron industry, and what could I show there ? One-third 
of the rolling-mills of Massachusetts killed since 1880, 
— in seven years dead; half of the rolling-mills of 
New England killed; the product of Massachusetts re- 
duced from over one hundred thousand tons to loss 
than fifty thousand, and now about one-fifth of what 
we once produced. What is the reason ? High-tariff 
legislation. Their life has been taken by law to satisfy 
the State of Pennsylvania. And who has been bene- 
fited ? Labor in Pennsylvania ? There is not a State 
in the Union, there are no industries in the Union, 
where labor is more down-trodden and depressed, 
where wages are lower and men more often out of 
employment, than in the highly protected industries of 
the State of Pennsylvania. /^Then I spoke to the far- 
mers of Greenfield, and what could I say to them ? 
That their farms had been declining in value, that the 
products of their farming had been declining, that the 
value of their live stock had been declining, that their 
churches were becoming dependent, and the population 
of their towns being sapped, and all within twenty years. 
Why ? Because they cannot compete with the great 
West while they struggle under this burden of high- 
tariff protection, with the cost of living increased by 
such protection. I went to Clinton, where there are 
woollen industries and carpet-mills, and what could 1 
show there ? That those carpet industries are bur- 
dened by a tariff tax on their raw materials, and 
that with the production of twenty-two million dollars 
worth of carpets in this country we export only ten 



TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON. 261 

thousand dollars worth. I went to Lowell, to Law- 
rence, to Fall River, to the great cotton cities, and what 
could I show there ? That the cotton industries were 
sending abroad fifteen million dollars worth of goods, 
competing in open market with the labor of the world, 
but that the woollen industries were scarcely sending 
a pound of their product abroad. They never can 
till government lifts its hand and gives them the same 
chance that the cotton and the silk and other indus- 
tries have. 1 went to the shoe cities, to Lynn, Marl- 
borough, North Adams, and what could I show there ? 
That the Republican party in 1872 made the raw mate- 
rial of that industry free, that no man called this 
free-trade, and that the export of their products rose 
from five hundred thousand dollars to more than ten 
million dollars, giving work and giving wages to our 
own employees. My friends, have I shown enough 
without taking you further in my pilgrimage to con- 
vince you of some of the evil effects which rise from 
high-tariff taxation ? There are two burdens : first, 
upon the whole people in raising the cost of living; 
second, upon the industries of the land in taxing their 
raw material. And right here comes the Mills Bill, 
and has for its fundamental principles relief where 
we are in distress, cheaper cost of living, and free raw 
materials for the benefit of New England and of all 
our industries. Does the Republican party in this cam- 
paign meet the issue of that bill, or discuss the ques- 
tion I have touched upon ? Docs any Republican from 
any stump in Massachusetts argue whether it is wise, in 
reducing this surplus, also to reduce the cost of living ? 
Does any Republican argue whether it is well for the 
industries of Massachusetts to have their raw material 
free ? If he does, I have not yet seen his speech in 
print. My friends, they cannot meet us on those issues. 



262 TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON. 

and ill their desperation, because they cannot, they have 
raised these false cries and false alarms. They cry 
"free-trade," and there rises up to confront them 
their broken promises, their unredeemed pledges, and 
their past record that, like Banquo's ghost, "will not 
down." Did not their last President advocate enlarg- 
ing the free list and reducing the tariff on wool, woollen 
goods, iron, sugar, and molasses ? Did not their last 
Secretary of the Treasury outline exactly the Mills 
Bill when he demanded that raw material should be 
free for our industries, and that the cost of living 
should be reduced by taking off some of the taxation 
on the necessaries of life ? Did not the State Conven- 
tion here in 1884 insist — that w^as their word — upon 
tariff' reduction, and did not Mr. Lodge advocate in 
that Convention, as its mouthpiece, the freeing entirely 
of the necessaries of life, and the making of wise and 
discriminating reductions? Did not Mr. Long in that 
same Convention advocate enlarging the free list, and 
was he not pointed to as an " honest revenue reformer " ? 
My friends, against the new Lodge and the new Long 
we place the old Lodge and the old Long. And we are 
not prepared to accept their excuses for their change 
of conviction. It is a poor excuse for Mr. Lodge to 
put his early sin, if it is a sin, on the back of his 
old Alma Mater thirteen years after he goes out from 
under her influence. It is a poor excuse for Mr. Long 
to protest that he has always been in favor of the pro- 
tective system, when we, who advocate what he advo- 
cated in 1884, are denounced as free-traders and under 
British and Southern influence. My friends, the only 
British influence that has come into this campaign 
has been the forged, spurious extracts from English 
newspapers, known to be forged and spurious, and 
denounced as forgeries, yet still circulating with the 



TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON. 263 

sanction of the Republican party and of that group of 
gentlemen called the Home Market Club. Then there 
was the paid imported Englishman hired by the Repub- 
lican party to instruct us in our political duties. They 
cry " Southern influence ; " but when you test that by 
the main feature of our bill, that cry, too, is dissi- 
pated. Free wool is the main, the pivotal point of the 
Mills Bill. Who is injured, if any one, by that pro= 
vision ? Why, the State of Texas has three times as 
many sheep as all New England, and if any one is 
hm-t, it is the constituents of Mr. Mills, and I think 
he deserves some credit for risking his political fu- 
ture, — if there is harm in the measure, — in order 
to give New England the benefit of free wool. Then 
there is the tax on sugar. They say we do not cut it 
deep enough becanse Louisiana is interested, and that 
is a Democratic and Southern State. Who fought the 
reduction of the tax on sugar in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, where there was the only live discussion and 
the only live bill that have come into this fight ? Why, 
but thirty-seven Republicans — ■ less than one fourth of 
their party — could be found to advocate a reduction in 
the tax on sugar. Who previously protested against 
it ? The protest came from the Republican State of 
Kansas, and to-day Republican senators from that 
State are outspoken in their opposition to any reduction 
of the tax on sugar. My friends, so much for the false 
issues raised by their declarations. Three Republi- 
can senators have produced a still-born bill that never 
was meant to have life, and that bill they did not dare 
even to bring to a vote in the Senate. And what is 
the bill ? The people have made two demands : first, 
for cheaper cost of living; second, for free raw mate- 
rial. And how does the Republican bill answer both de- 
mands? Outside of the reduction of sugar, eight million 



264 TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON. 

dollars taken off the tariff revenue, and seven-eighths 
of it comes by raising still higher tariff duties. They 
stop the surplus by burdening still more the people 
with taxation. And then comes their free list. And 
what a free list! Acorns and bristles, — to fatten and 
to save our hogs. Free tobacco and alcohol for the 
arts, — ^for the arts, mind you, of ruining men, and of 
bringing misery into many happy homes. I have said 
it was for the arts. If you ever get any of it, remember 
that you are to use it only for the arts, and do not make 
the mistake Mark Twain says he made; do not fall 
into his confusion, when he said, "I am an absolute 
teetotaller, but I must confess that a little whiskey 
for mechanical purposes tastes good." 

My friends, I have spoken longer than I intended. 
This word let me say in closing. The issue is one of 
tax reduction; but that issue is founded on a prin- 
ciple broader than any principle of taxation : it is the 
principle of equality under the law. Other nations 
have had a contest something like ours. A hundred 
years ago almost to a day there came a great uprising 
of the people in France. For what ? For equality 
under the law. They had been down-trodden and op- 
pressed by the misuse of power that put its burdens on 
the many in order to give privileges to the few. I 
know that state of things was worse, vastly worse, than 
anything we have. But the same principle was there 
as here ; and the people in their desperation rose in their 
might and swept away all laws, that they might have 
equality. Forty years ago and more there came a move- 
ment in England much like the movement here, but 
going further than we intend to go. What was it ? It 
was of a people suffering from taxation on their food, 
their necessaries of life, their industries, on the raw 
material that entered into those industries. There 



TEEMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON. 265 

came a great uprising of that people. It was the masses 
against the few ; it was the people against the land- 
lords ; and there sprang forward to lead that movement 
such men as Cobden, Bright, O'Connell, and Peel. And 
when they had broken down those barriers, England 
stepped forward with new life. Her wealth and com- 
merce grew as they had never grown before. Her popu- 
lation increased, and wages rose higher by fifty per cent. 
Convictions for crime diminished, and pauperism de- 
creased. In closing the debate on the repeal of those 
laws. Sir Robert Peel uttered these memorable words : 
"I shall leave a name execrated by every monopolist 
who clamors for protection, because it conduces to his 
own individual benefit; but it may be that I shall 
leave a name sometimes remembered with expressions 
of good-will in the abodes of those whose lot it is to 
labor and to earn their bread by the sweat of their 
brow, when they shall recruit their exhausted strength 
with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because 
it is no longer leavened with a measure of injustice." 

So might our glorious President say: "I, too, shall 
leave a name execrated by the monopolist who has gath- 
ered his millions in taxation of a whole people; exe- 
crated by every combination, monopoly, and trust in 
this land which is to-day contributing from its funds 
to control the government for its selfish purposes. But 
it may be I shall ' leave a name sometimes remem- 
bered with expressions of good-will in the abodes of 
those whose lot it is to labor, when they shall eat their 
abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because it is 
no longer leavened with a measure of injustice. ' " 



SPEECH 

AT THE YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DINISTEE, BOS- 
TON, DEC. 17, 1888, UPON THE LESSONS OF DEFEAT. 

THE kindness of your introduction, Mr. President, 
is much more flattering than any service of mine 
has deserved. Your cordial welcome, gentlemen, is 
most generous to one who has not borne your banner 
to the victory it richly merited. But as I know this 
club was not organized for a single campaign, nor to 
fight a single battle, I am not surprised to find that 
your earnestness and enthusiasm are not dependent on 
the accident of victory or defeat. It was organized to 
declare, follow, and fight for the living faith of a great 
party ; to love, honor, and cherish this bride of our 
choice, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, 
until death, not defeat, us do part. So to-night we 
meet disappointed but not discouraged, defeated but 
not dead, to renew our loyalty to our party, to raise 
again its banner, and to write upon it the familiar 
principles of our faith, which we believe appeal to the 
conscience, patriotism, and unselfishness of a just and 
liberty-loving people. Our constitution requires that 
from time to time the club shall make a declaration of 
its principles upon pending issues. Most fitly to-day, 
in the soberness of defeat, it has made such a declara- 
tion as a creed under which we may rally with renewed 
vio-or. Wiselv it has written it so clear and definite 
that "he who runs may read." There is neither 
strength nor wisdom in hiding our belief under general 



YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DINNER. 267 

phrases, nor in hesitating aggressively to uphold it. 
Again, and more emphatically, we demand a reform 
and reduction of the tariff on the lines marked out by 
our brave and glorious President. Behind our demand 
for free raw material stand languishing some industries 
of New England. A foreign shipping dead, a glass 
industry dead, an iron industry dying, a woollen 
industry stagnant, that, if unburdened, is ready and 
able vastly to extend its market, necessitate this 
demand ; and the growth and prosperity of our cotton, 
silk, shoe, and leather industries, which are not so 
burdened, emphasize this necessity. If anything was 
proved in the last election, it was that the industrial 
centres of Massachusetts and New England favor such 
tariff reduction. For one, I believe that the life of some 
New England industries is now gradually being taken 
by law, and the aid they need of the government is that 
it should lift a little the heavy hand it lays upon them. 

We demand reduction of taxation upon the necessaries 
of life, whose cost has been raised by this unjust dis- 
crimination of the law. And this we demand, not only 
as a great boon to the whole people in giving them 
cheaper clothing, food, and shelter, but as a simple 
measure of justice to those' who have been taught to 
believe in the equality of the law, to obey and respect 
it as the people's mandate for the people's good, and 
not as the law of money makers, enacted solely for 
their money making. 

If these demands were just and Democratic before 
election, they are made doubly so now by what seems 
to be the plan of our opponents. In every lull of 
clamor for office we hear the distant mutterings that 
portend a storm of unjust, extravagant, and burdensome 
legislation. Bounties, high taxation, and extravagant 
appropriations seem to be the only answer given to 



268 YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DINNER. 

a conservative demand for free raw material and 
cheaper necessaries of life. At its recent meeting in 
New York the National Fishery Association, a stanch 
supporter of the Republican party, and so expecting its 
consideration, demands a bounty for its interest, and 
that lish now free be taxed, and fish now taxed be 
still higher taxed. They demand a gift from the 
people's taxes, while they raise the cost of the people's 
food. A Congressman-elect from this State insists that 
another share of the people's taxes shall be given to 
the shipping interests. Mr. Jarratt is urging in 
Washington a still higher tax on tin plates for the 
benefit of some possible industry that does not yet 
exist, and with a certainty that such legislation will 
burden many an existing ipdustry, and raise the cost 
of living in every home in the land. Meanwhile, the 
Senate is seriously considering a tariff bill to raise by 
higher duties the cost of wool, clothing, hardware, glass, 
and many articles of universal use, as the best remedy 
for an overflowing treasury, and Congress is urged to 
make enormous appropriations of doubtful constitution- 
ality and of certain inexpediency. 

This club strongly protests against such legislation 
as unjust and un-Democratic in principle, and demor- 
alizing in its results. We do not believe that a special 
industry should be allowed to stretch its hand into the 
treasury of the United States, or that this offence is 
excused by allowing others or all the same privilege. 
The people are watching with some anxiety and fear 
to see if it is possible that the guiding principles of 
the ncAv administration are to be the pernicious doc- 
trine that "to the victors belong the spoils," and the 
more pernicious doctrine, to campaign contributors 
belong the people's taxes. Both principles this club 
denounces. 



YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DINNER. 269 

In matters of State leo-islation also we have clearly 
defined our position. We believe there has been a 
steady drift away from the principle of local self- 
government, — too much government by State commis- 
sions, and too strong a tendency to manage cities from 
the State House, instead of from their own city halls. 

We advocate home rule, not merely as a sentiment, 
but as a controlling power, and think there is virtue 
yet in the principle of the old town meeting. We 
would give to the individual the largest liberty consis- 
tent with the public welfare, and to every locality the 
right to control its affairs. 

I am glad that our club has stated its position on a 
question that is not and never can be a party question, 
but one which of late has excited much interest and 
much unfair and violent discussion. I know I express 
your sentiment, and that of the whole Democratic party, 
when I declare our firm devotion to the public schools 
as one of the grandest, most useful, and most Demo- 
cratic institutions of this old Commonwealth. They 
have been and are her special pride and glory. In 
these days, when there seems to be an evil tendency 
to break society into classes, to separate the rich and 
the poor, our public schools stand as a bulwark against 
such tendency. Open and free to all, they are con- 
stantly preaching the equality of all, and allowing the 
life of each one to blend with the lives of others. The 
best and most useful lesson that they teach is this les- 
son of Democracy, which may well be learned by every 
child. The Democratic party, in its professions and its 
practice, is a firm friend of the public-school system, and 
insists that that system must and shall be maintained. 
Thoughtful men may well consider whether he is not 
the real enemy of the public schools who breathes i]ito 
the community a spirit of intolerance and proscription. 



270 YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DINNER. 

I have spoken, Mr. President, only of the present 
and the future. 1 believe there is no profit in mourn- 
ing over the past. Bitterly disappointed, the Demo- 
cratic party has accepted its defeat in a manly and 
patient spirit, following the example of its noble Presi- 
dent, yet firm in its belief that the great reform it 
demands is not defeated, but opens now to us a field 
of splendid and useful activity. For a time we stand 
as critics to judge the new administration in a spirit 
of fairness and consideration, ready to accept and 
support all measures that accord with our belief. 

Let us take, to encourage and strengthen us for the 
battles yet before us, the old inscription in the little 
chapel in the Tyrol, which to our greatest poet seemed 
in his hour of sorrow to be the footprint of an angel : 
"Look not mournfully into the past: it comes not 
back again. Wisely improve the present: it is thine. 
Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and 
with a manly heart." The past of disappointment and 
defeat I believe comes not back again. The present 
of glorious agitation in a just cause is ours ; and if, in 
that cause, without fear we go forth to meet the future, 
it can have in store nothing but triumphant victory. 

One phase only of our defeat seems to be irreparable, 
— the defeat of a brave, patriotic President, who knew 
his duty and dared to do it. It is his country's loss, 
not his. The high standard he set of official life 
entitled him to her confidence and support. Because 
his administration was not ever seeking votes, but the 
people's welfare, majorities unsought should have 
risen to uphold him. His faithful devotion to duty, his 
conscientious watchfulness, his manly bearing when 
stung by an unjust defeat, I confess have made of me 
something of a hero-worshipper. For one, I find it 
pleasant to apply to him those grand lines sent In' Sir 



YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCKATIC CLUB DINNER. 271 

Henry Taylor to Mr. Gladstone in 1874 in his hour of 
defeat : — 

" What makes a hero ? An heroic mind 
Expressed in action, in endurance proved ; 
And if there be pre-eminence of right 
Derived from pain well suffered, to the height 
Of rank heroic, 't is to bear unmoved, 
Not toil by day scarce known to human kind, 
Not watch by night when Fate is on the wind. 
But worse, — ingratitude, and poisonous darts 
Launched by the country he had served and loved. 
This, with a free, unclouded spirit pure. 
This, in the strength of silence to endure, 
A dignity to noble deeds imparts 
Beyond the gauds and pageants of renown ; 
This is the hero's compliment and crown." 

I propose a health to President Cleveland, — a brave, 
able, upright, and patriotic President. The people's 
cause he championed still lives ; the saddest lesson of 
his defeat is that taught to his successors, — that it 
may be impolitic for a President to dare to do his full 
duty. 



SPEECH 

AT THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, OCT. 
2, 1889, ON THE RECORD OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Democrats : 

I FULLY appreciate the high honor tendered me by 
the Democracy of this State in the action of its 
Convention. I also appreciate the grave responsibility 
that comes with it. Unsolicited, you have placed in 
my hands the glorious standard of the party, have 
granted me the privilege of aggressively fighting its 
battle, and of rallying to its support all who believe 
with us in the principles that standard represents. 
The struggle must be no holiday pastime, but an 
honest, earnest, united effort to lift this old Common- 
wealth out of the rut in which it labors, to truer prin- 
ciples of government, to purer purposes in its admin- 
istration. In these days of selfish, partisan abuse of 
power; of unjust and unequal laws; of reckless, extra- 
vagant, and irresponsible administration; of timidity, 
hypocrisy, and self-seeking that lower and degrade 
public life, — we confidently appeal to the people to 
turn from Republican misrule to our faith as the sign 
and the hope of progress and reform. 

This is the proper place, not to discuss the issues of 
the campaign, but to state the principles of our faith. 
Starting with a firm, implicit belief in the people, in 
their integrity, intelligence, and patriotism, the Demo- 
cratic faith demands that political power be given 



DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1889. 273 

them, not as a privilege, but as a right ; it asserts tliat 
their manhood, not the poll-tax, entitles them to a voice 
in the government which rules them. It declares the 
equality of all men in the affairs of State and before the 
altar of their God, and demands " equal and exact justice 
to all, of whatever State or persuasion, religious or 
political." It demands the freedom of the individual 
from unnecessary burdens and restrictions ; that taxa- 
tion, the greatest burden and power of government, shall 
not be used to enrich the few and oppress the many, 
but in its purpose be limited to the support of gov- 
ernment for the benefit of all, rather than be made a 
gigantic instrument for distributing favors or paying 
])olitical debts. Democracy stands beside the humblest 
individual to protect him from oppression, and to 
encourage him to make the most of himself. It would 
make him a partner in, not a dependent upon, govern- 
ment. That power which controls the lives, liberty, 
and property of the people our faith insists shall be kept 
closely within their reach. It therefore demands home 
rule, — the right of each community to govern itself, 
without interference in its local affairs by a power 
above and beyond it. In the administration of the 
people's government as a public trust Democracy de- 
mands honesty, efficiency, economy, and unselfishness. 
This faith rests not on promise, but on service well 
and faithfully rendered. Much of the glorious history 
of our country rests on Democratic enforcement of 
these Democratic principles for nearly fifty years. 
More recently, under a wise, brave, and honest Presi- 
dent, the people have felt the blessing of these prin- 
ciples vigorously and unselfishly administered. Seven 
months of Republican rule have but cast the shadow 
that brings into bright relief the virtues of the past 
administration. Cleveland and Harrison I They fitly 

18 



274 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1839. 

represent the principles and purposes of their respective 
]:arti('S. Between them there is a difference as great 
as between courage and timidity, patriotism and policy, 
{progress and stagnation, the living principles of a living 
party, and the lifeless faith of a party that dwells 
only in the past; between a people's President who 
fights for the people's cause, who serves them and 
them only, and a party President who hears the voice 
only of the politicians. 

We charge the Republican party in State and Nation 
with repeated, constant, and deliberate violation of 
these principles, that are cardinal to our faith, and at 
the very foundation of Repuljlican institutions. 

It has debauched the public service in violation of 
its jdedges and the plighted word of its President for 
partisan purposes, regardless of the capacity, fidelity, 
and honesty of the public servants it has brutally dis- 
missed. To it reform of the civil service has become 
a byword and a jest. 

It has surrendered its power in imperial States to 
irresponsible and discredited party bosses, to be used 
for politics only, and has tainted the administration 
of pul)lic affairs with the scandal of nepotism and 
jobbery. 

It has repeatedly disregarded the right of local self- 
government in order to foist Republican rule upon 
Democratic communities, and now it demands national 
control of elections, coupled with the assuring declara- 
tion of one of its leaders that he has no objection to the 
presence of United States troops at the polls of a free 
and self-governing people ! Faneuil Hall but a few years 
ago uttered its indignant and non-partisan ]irotest 
against that principle applied to Louisiana, Faneuil 
Hall will be heard also against its application to the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 



DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1889. 275 

It has maintained unjust and unnecessary burdens of 
taxation upon the people to enrich the few and to pay 
its political debts. It has substituted treasury made 
law for the will of the people by Congress declared. 

It has left unheeded the demand to lift taxation, to 
cheapen a little the food, clothing, and shelter of the 
whole people, and to give our industries a chance to 
live; but has declared its purpose of increasing and 
extending this burden. No wonder that its own Gov- 
ernor in this Commonwealth breaks through all party 
allegiance and places himself with us on the side of 
the people and reform ; or that languishing indus- 
tries of Massachusetts cry out in distress that they be 
no longer throttled to satisfy the demand of Ohio and 
Pennsylvania. Our suffering woollen industry, our 
foreign commerce swept from the seas, and the un- 
lighted fires of our glass and iron furnaces utter their 
emphatic and indignant protest against the Republican 
abuse of the power of taxation. 

It has administered with reckless partiality a great 
department of government for the purpose of getting 
votes, rather than fairly, justly to all the veterans, and 
to uphold the pension list as "a roll of honor," and has 
made its scapegoat the man who did its will. 

In State affairs we charge the Republican party with 
a thorough mistrust of the people, and with maintain- 
ing itself in power by taxing the right to vote. 

It has violated the fundamental right of home- 
rule, and established State-House control of municipal 
government. 

It has steadily increased the expenditures, taxes, 
commissions, burdens, and restrictions of the State, 
and been more anxious to raise salaries than to lower 
taxes, to increase the offices than to lessen the burdens 
on the people. 



276 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1889. 

It has shown timidity, irresolution, and hypocrisy in 
dealing with the leading questions of the State. It 
has resolved to repeal the poll-tax one year, and defeated 
its own resolution the next. It has passed a prohibi- 
tory law, and repealed it ; voted for and against consti- 
tutional prohibition; turned the question out of the 
Legislature to the people, and then back from the 
people to the Legislature. It has made a foot-ball of 
important matters, kicking them from year to year, or 
between the two branches of the Legislature it over- 
whelmingly controls. 

It has not listened to the demands of labor for just 
and beneficent legislation, or only listened when com- 
pelled to by Democratic importunity. 

It has used its power for partisan purposes in redis- 
tricting the State, so as to make its popular majority 
overwhelming in the legislative and congressional 
districts. 

It has allowed an irresponsible third body to exist, 
that stands between the people and their Legislature, 
controlling legislation against the people's interests. 
It has defeated a law to limit the power of this body 
and give publicity to its acts. 

It has not heeded the demand for purer, freer elec- 
tions, uncontrolled by the corrupt use of money, but 
has defeated a law that would stop this vital evil by 
compelling the publication of campaign expenses. 

Gentlemen, the issue this year is not between candi- 
dates, but between the principles and purposes of the 
two great parties in this State. The standard you have 
placed in my hands bears upon it, I believe, the prin- 
ciples I have stated. 1 know that you will declare 
those principles, clearly, honestly, bravely. The people 
are in no mood to be satisfied with a platform built 
to mean anything or nothing, to hide rather than to 



DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1889. 277 

declare a party's policy. "Party honesty is party 
expediency, " 

Grateful to you for the confidence you have placed in 
me, I accept the nomination you have tendered me. 

I do not know whether I shall carry your standard to 
victory or defeat. The decision of that question rests 
with the people of this Commonwealth. But this 
much I can promise : it shall never be lowered, and 
shall be returned to you without a stain upon its folds. 
In such a cause " not failure, but low aim is crime. " 



SPEECH 

AT THE BAY STATE CLUB DINNER, BOSTON, OCT. 12, 
1889, UPON A COMPARISON OF THE DEMOCRATIC AND 
REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 

FOR a second time it affords me great pleasure to 
acknowledge the generous hospitality of the Bay 
State Club, and through it to express my thanks to 
the Democratic party of this State for its confidence in 
me and in my Democracy in choosing me again to lead 
its campaign. 

I recognize the fact that here at this board I sit in 
the presence of tried and trusted leaders of the party, 
who have led it gallantly in sunshine and darkness, wdio 
have unflinchingly kept the faith, and at whose feet 
we younger Democrats have gladly learned those prin- 
ciples for which now we are ready to make an earnest 
and an aggressive fight. The campaign this year is 
a fight between the principles and the purposes of the 
two great parties of this State. It is not, and cannot 
be 'made, a fight between candidates except as they 
represent those principles. As far as lies in my power, 
the fight shall be kept up to that standard, and shall 
not degenerate into personal criticism or personal 
abuse. 

The questions for the people of this State to determine 
upon their conscience are: Has the administration of 
National affairs been so honest, faithful, patriotic, and 
unselfish, with a single eye to the people's interest and 



BAY STATE CLUB DINNER. 279 

the people's good, that Massachusetts is ready by her 
vote to indorse and encourage that administration ? 
For whatever our friends on the other side may say, 
every man of sense knows that the decision of Massa- 
chusetts in this election is of importance and weight 
in determining the course and policy of National affairs. 
Who believes that if Massachusetts on the fiftli of 
November becomes Democratic, it is not going to detei'- 
mine largely what shall be done in the administration 
of National affairs? 

Another question: Has the administration of State 
affaii's been so honest, pure, unseliish, so free from 
irresponsible influences and beyond criticism that the 
people of this Commonwealth are ready to indorse its 
acts by voting to continue the Republican party still 
longer in power? 

Another question : Has the Republican party so hon- 
estly and explicitly declared its policy, and in favor of 
measures that are for the people's interest, that the 
]>eople are ready to support it by giving to it their 
votes ? 

I have taken pains at the outset of this campaign 
carefully to draw up the indictment that I think can 
honestly be made against the Republican party. That 
indictment shall be proved from the stump in Massa- 
chusetts by evidence that cannot be controverted. And 
if that indictment is proved, I have the right to call 
upon the conscience and patriotism of this State to 
support us in this fight. 

I recognize the fact that here in this presence is 
not the place to enter into a detailed discussion of 
campaign issues, nor is it necessary; but it seems to 
me proper and pertinent at this time to point out one 
striking contrast between the parties as shown in the 
])latforms of their conventions. 



280 BAY STATE CLUB DINNER. 

The Democratic party, true to its duty as the peo- 
ple's party, has stated that evils exist in administration 
and in unjust and unequal laws ; and it has explicitly, 
bravely, and boldly told \yhat the remedy should be. 
The Republican party has not had the courage to face 
those evils or to suggest a remedy. The Democratic 
platform outlines a policy that means something. The 
Republican platform Avas built to hide evils that exist, 
to evade disputed questions, and to avoid committing 
its party to any definite position or settled policy. 

The Democratic platform is brave, bold, explicit, 
because of our consciousness that we are right. The 
Republican platform is non-committal, evasive, cow- 
ardly, because of their fear that they are wrong. And 
those platforms have been followed by the declination 
of their candidate officially to expound and explain his 
])latform under the responsibility and criticism of a 
joint debate. 

Now, if you will bear with me for a few minutes I 
propose to examine the Republican platform and to con- 
trast it with the Democratic, but unfortunately in the 
absence of its official expounder, whom, as you suggest. 
Sir, we would gladly have entertained here to-day as the 
beginning of our joint discussion. The platform, after 
indulging in congratulations and a display of exuberant 
spirit over the Republican victory, — pardonable, per- 
haps, because of a pardonable pride one always has in a 
possession that costs a good deal, — proceeds to declare 
its position on the first great National question of the 
day, — the question of civil service reform. There are 
in this Commonwealth thousands of honest, disinter- 
ested men, men who have no other ])urpose to serve 
than to obtain good, honest, and unselfish government, 
who believe in that reform as vital to the safety of 
this Nation. I want to ask those gentlemen how 



BAY STATE CLUB DINNER. 281. 

well they are satisfied with the declaration of the 
Republican platform upon that question. Here it 
is : — 

" We desire also to congratulate the President upon 
the practical wisdom and honest purpose " with which 
he has dealt with the offices. 

Its framers might have added, without exaggeration : 
" And upon his wonderful celerity and easy conscience 
in forgetting his plighted word. " 

And then they add the request, or rather the threat, 
that in filling the offices in Massachusetts he shall take 
good care to satisfy " the great body of the Re})ublican 
party. " There is some moderation also in that. You 
will notice that they skip the head and tail of the party, 
and are satisfied if the offices satisfy the great body of 
the party. And then they go on to say: "We wish to 
commend most heartily the policy of the President in 
resiard to civil service reform." as shown in various 
ways which they specify. What has been that policy? 
Thousands and thousands of faithful, upright public 
servants have been dismissed from the public service 
for political reasons only. Others of the President's 
own party, efficient and upright in office, who have lived 
through various administrations, and who have given 
their lives to their official work, have been dismissed in 
order to give place to the spoilsman, — thus making 
office part of the spoils of a victorious party. 

Let us compare the policy with the pledges of the 
party. The National Republican party a year ago gave 
this pledge to the country: "That the existing law 
should be extended to all grades of service to which 
it is applicable, and the spirit and purpose of the 
reform should be observed in all executive depart- 
ments. " That was the pledge of the party to the people, 
and here is the President's personal pledge to them: 



282 BAY STATE CLUB DINNER. 

"That fitness, not party service, should bo the essen- 
tial test in appointment; that fidelity and efficiency 
should be the only sure tenure of office; and that only 
the interest of the public service should suggest re- 
movals from office." 

Does any man believe that that pledge has not been 
violated? Does any man believe that the public inter- 
est only has been the test in determining removals 
from office? The record of fifteen thousand office- 
holders in one department dismissed in five short 
months proves that the acts of that party have been 
false to its professions. 

On that issue will any man say that the platform, 
adopted this year, shows either courage or conviction ? 
It commends the civil service policy of the President. 
Does it or docs it not believe in civil service reform ? 
That is the question which the people of this Common- 
wealth want answered. It cannot believe in that reform 
if it commends the practice of its President. 

I will come to the next question dealt with in the 
Republican platform, and the most important question, 
either State or National, before the people of this 
country, — the question of tariff reform. As I read the 
plank on that question I ask you, not as Democrats, 
but as intelligent, reasoning men, to tell me, if you can, 
where the Republican party by its platform stands upon 
this issue. The Republicans commit themselves "to 
urge and support a thorough and equitable revision of 
the tariff so as to adapt the protection which it affords 
to changed business conditions affecting New England 
industries in common with those of the rest of the 
country." They fail to specify what are the changed 
l)usiness conditions. Is it a changed business condition 
that this tariff was adopted as a war measure, for war 
purposes to raise a war revenue, and that now for 



BAY STATE CLUB DINNER. 288 

twenty-five years we have had peace, and still with 
increasing burdens a high tariff exists to raise a surplus 
revenue that is not needed ? I want to ask my Repub- 
lican friends if they recognize that as a changed busi- 
ness condition? 

Is it a changed business condition that under the 
operation of that tariff great industries of Massachu- 
setts have been declining and dying ? Is it a changed 
business condition that under the operation of that 
tariff' Pennsylvania is killing some industries of Massa- 
chusetts? Is it a changed business condition that in 
the highly protected industries under the operation of 
that tariff there have l)een the lowest wages? Is it 
a changed condition that under the ojieration of that 
tariff there has been an increase of cost of the food, 
shelter, and clothing of the whole people? Is it a 
changed condition that this tariff has caused over- 
production which needs and must have wider and for- 
eign markets? Can any man find in the platform what 
are the changed business conditions which it admits 
but does not dare to specify? You may search that 
platform long and far before you get an answer to those 
questions. You may search it farther and longer be- 
fore you find a hint or a suggestion of any remedy to 
meet the difficulty. Does the platform mean free wool — 
that is what the people of this Commonwealth want to 
know — to satisfy the woollen industry ? Does the plat- 
form mean free coal and iron ? The Republican party 
docs not dare to say, nor does it dare to take its posi- 
tion beside its own Governor in asking for free coal 
and iron. Does the platform mean free raw materials 
to give our industries a chance to live, and to give 
our people relief from the burdens that are oppressing 
them, and greater comfort in their homes and in their 
lives ? 



28-4 BAY STATE CLUB DINNER. 

' Now contrast that evasive platform with the declara- 
tion of Democracy upon the question. We do not hesitate 
to say, in answer to the demands of business interests 
and of the whole people, that we stand for free wool, 
for free coal to make more cheerful the fireside of the 
humblest home and to give our industries greater pros- 
l)crity. Free iron we demand ; free raw materials wo 
demand, and cheaper necessaries of life. There is no 
evasion in the platform of the Democratic party. ' 

Follow it down into State affairs, and see if my 
criticism on the Republican platform is not again 
true. It comes to the question of temperance, and 
begins with the declaration that " in State affairs 
the question deservedly most interesting to the people 
of the Commonwealth is that of temperance." Well, if 
it is, you would think that the Republican party would 
have some definite policy upon it. Let us see what that 
policy is. Here is its declaration as far as aggressive 
legislation is concerned: The Republicans pledge that 
"further legislation shall be had whenever and wher- 
ever it can secure further suppression of the terrible 
evil." Does that pledge them to anything? Does 
that commit the party to anything? I want to ask the 
Republican party and its candidate this question: 
Does your party or does it not believe in prohibition ? 
Will you, Mr. Brackett, recommend in your message 
to the Legislature, if you have an opportunity of writing 
one, prohibition ? Will you, if the Legislature passes a 
prohibitory law, sign it ? That is the question the people 
want answered. Your platform commits you to nothing. 
It evades the question. The Republicans are praying 
still " Good Lord and good Devil " on the temperance 
issue in this State. If they do not favor a prohibitory 
law, does the Republican party or its candidate in this 
State practically favor prohibition by such stringent 



BAY STATE CLUB DINNER. 285 

legislation as will accomplish it ? Do they commit 
themselves to a single measure which was under dis- 
cussion by the last Legislature, and was believed by 
many people to result in practical prohibition if 
adopted ? No, gentlemen, no. They commit them- 
selves to nothing. And though within a year they have 
been on both sides of the question of constitutional 
prohibition, though within twenty years they have 
hopped from side to side of the temperance question 
as easily and jauntily as if they were' engaged in a 
pastime instead of discharging a solemn dut}', yet 
notwithstanding that, or perhaps because of that, the 
Republican party finds it prudent this year to hide 
rather than to declare its policy. 

So much for the courage of the Republicans in their 
acts of commission in their platform. Now a word or 
two for their acts of omission. There are great busi- 
ness interests in Boston and New England, and the 
interests of the people stand behind them, that de- 
mand freer commercial relations Avith Canada and 
with Mexico. There is not a word in the Republican 
platform as to their policy on that question. We do 
not know whether they believe or disbelieve in that 
demand of the people. There is also a strong public 
protest against traffic arrangements and restrictions 
of Canadian railroads that will operate to the detri- 
ment of business interests in Boston and New Ensrland 
and to the detriment of the whole people. The Repub- 
lican platform has not a word to say upon that question. 
Why? They cannot take any position without hurting 
or stultifying themselves, and therefore they decline to 
be committed. 

There is not a word in their platform of criticism or 
commendation upon the administration of a great de- 
partment of this Nation that has attracted universal 



286 BAY STATE CLUB DINNER. 

attention. They believe in a liberal policy in regard 
to pensions ; but they do not care to say whether they 
support or oppose such administration of that depart- 
ment as has been given us under a Republican adminis- 
tration. 

Passing then to State questions, notice there is not a 
word in their platform upon the two great public de- 
mands in this State for legislation. A large proportion 
of the people in Massachusetts and the whole Demo- 
cratic party do not believe in the principle of the poll- 
tax as a qualification for voting. All know that in its 
effect it has been debasing and corrupting in public 
life. The Republican party has been on both sides of 
that question also, as on most questions in this Com- 
monwealth. It has not a word now to say about it in 
its platform. So in reference to the demands of labor 
for just and wise legislation there is not one word in 
the whole platform. Nor has it taken any position 
upon a matter which perhaps more than anything else 
has attracted attention throughout the Commonwealth, 
particularly the attention of the Republican party as 
voiced in the Republican newspapers, — an irresponsi- 
ble, secret lobby, acting upon legislation, and control- 
ling it against the people's interests. There is not a 
word of condemnation of that in the platform or now 
from their party Press, — only this remark, that the 
Republicans "promise to give to the Commonwealth 
the same honest, economical, and progressive govern- 
ment which [they] have given to it for more than thirty 
years, and with which the people are familiar," 

The people are becoming familiar with it, but are 
inclined to give it a different name. 

I cannot help thinking, when one goes over that plat- 
form and sees how little it says that is explicit, honest, 
and straightforward, that it must have been written 



BAY STATE CLUB DINNER. 287 

under instructions like those given by Hon, Preserved 
Doe in secret caucus, as reported in the " Biglow 
Papers." 

Witli your permission, I should like to repeat those 
instructions, and ask you, in the light of this Repub- 
lican platform, whether you do not think that they were 
also given by the chairman of the Committee on Reso- 
lutions. Says Mr. Lodge, if I may assume that he was 
the author of the platform, in secret caucus : — 

" The first thing for sound politicians to lam is 
Thet Truth, to dror kindly in all sorts o' harness, 
Mus' be kep' in the abstract, — for, come to apply it, 
You 're ept to hurt some folks' interest by it. 
Wal, these ere Republicans (some on 'em) ects 
Ez though gineral mexims 'ud suit speshle facts ; 
An' thei-e 's where we '11 nick 'em, there 's where they '11 be lost, 
For applyin' the princerple 's wut makes it cost. 

A ginooine statesman should be on his guard, 

Ef he must have beliefs, nut to b'lieve 'em too hard ; 

For, ez sure ez he does, he '11 be blartin' 'em out, 

'Thout regardin' the natur' o' a man more 'n a spout. 

Now, it don't ask nuich gumiition to pick out a flaw 

In a party whose leaders are loose iu the jaw ; 

An' so, in our own case, I ventur' to hint 

That we 'd better not air our perceedin's in print, 

Xor pass resolutions ez long ez your arm, 

Thet may, ez things hai:)i3en to turn, do us harm ; 

For when you 've done all your real meanin' to smother, 

The derned things '11 up and mean sumthin' or 'nother. 

No, never say nothin' without you 're compelled tu. 
An' then don't say nothin' thet you can be held tu, 
Nor don't have no friction idees layin' loose 
For the ign'ant to put to incend'ary use." 

And yet the same Convention which adopted that 
platform as its declaration of belief referred to itself as 
the party of Andrew, of Sumner, and of Wilson. Its 



288 BAY STATE CLUB DINNER. 

members forgot that on what they call the "most in- 
teresting question " in this State to-day, Andrew stood 
pointedly against them, and with the Democrats in their 
belief in license and local option. They forgot that 
Sumner was read out of the Republican party because 
he dared to criticise the nepotism and personal politics 
which were controlling that party, for which act he 
came under the condemnation of a Republican Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts. Would not Sumner speak as 
bravely to-day against the nepotism and jjersonal poli- 
tics that are controlling the Republican party ? They 
forgot that on the leading question, either State 
or National, Henry Wilson stood directly and emphati- 
cally against their present position, declaring over and 
over again his belief that free raw materials w^ere 
necessary for the industries of Massachusetts and for the 
good of her people. They forgot that on the other great 
State issue Sumner and Wilson both lent their elo- 
quent and emphatic voices in favor of the abolition 
of the poll-tax as a qualification for voting. Where 
would these men stand to-day? I believe if they could 
be brought back to life, and by strenuous efforts, through 
the storms and seas that surround the Republican ship, 
could get aboard that ship, that they would find a vessel 
without chart or compass, without a pilot or course, 
without a destination or safe anchorage, and under the 
control of an irresponsible and reckless crew. What 
assurance would they have that all was safe? Only the 
assurance given by the captain of a vessel to his rever- 
end passenger, who, as the winds blew and the seas 
rolled, asked in alarm for some proof that they were to 
be saved. The captain tried to assure him, but failed. 
At last he took him forward, and asked him to look 
down the forecastle and see the sailors swearing and 
quarrelling. The captain said: "Do you think if this 



BAY STATE CLUB DINNER. 289 

vessel were going to destruction, and those men into the 
presence of their Maker, that they would be swearing 
and quarrelling ? " And after that the reverend gentle- 
man every few minutes went to the forecastle, looked 
down, and lifting up his hands, thanked Gud that the 
crew were still swearing. 

If those wise and able men referred to in the Repub- 
lican Convention were on the Republican ship to-day, 
they would ask for some better assurance of its safety 
than the acts of an irresponsible and reckless crew. 
They would demand that the ship be sailed with chart 
and compass, with a pilot and a course and a fixed 
destination for its voyage. 

Men may honestly differ in their positions on the 
issues of to-day. I do not believe that honest men 
differ in their belief that a party should take some 
position on those questions, and not be left to drift 
haphazard. Because the Democracy has been bold, 
aggressive, fearless in taking its position, it is attract- 
ing the young blood and life of this Commonwealth. 
The Democracy on these issues is engaged in a war in 
which there is no discharge till victory comes. I 
appeal with confidence to the sturdy people of this old 
Commonwealth to help us in that fight. 



19 



SPEECH 

AT THE YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DIN^^ER, 
BOSTON, DEC. U, 1889, UPON THE DIFFERENCE BE- 
TWEEN THE PARTIES. 

I SHOULD indeed be ungrateful if I felt unmoved 
by the cordial welcome of this Democratic club. 
Were this an occasion for formal speech-making, re- 
membering the able statement of the principles of our 
faith made here last week by distinguished Democrats 
of national reputation, 1 should doubt the necessity, and 
certainly my ability, to add anything to what was then 
so felicitously said. We have been especially glad to 
welcome among us our gallant ex-President, under 
whose banner we have proudly marched to victory, 
under whose administration we have felt the bless- 
ings of Democratic principles courageously enforced, 
and who now, though defeated, still exercises, through 
our party, a healthy influence upon the juiblic opin- 
ion of this country. Stripped of all ofhcial power, 
he has proved how great and powerful a man can be 
who has unselfishly devoted himself to the people's 
interests, who consistently upholds a high standard of 
public duty and public life, and who breathes in every 
word encouragement, which inspires us to follow in 
the path of reform where he has blazed the way. But 
to-night we have come together at this annual meeting of 
the club, in an informal way, to talk over the past and 
plan for the future. We meet with a defeat behind us, 
yet, thank God, not a whit discouraged, but more loyal 



YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DINNER. 291 

than ever to our party and its cause, and with a full and 
steadfast faith that defeat is behind, and victory ahead 
and near at hand. I never come to a meeting of this 
club without a feeling of proud satisfaction, mingled 
with much personal gratitude, for the splendid work the 
club has done, and for its aid in those campaigns in 
which I have taken an active part. Always in its pres- 
ence I feel encouragement and hope for the future, and 
go forth from its meetings more determined than ever 
that the fight shall be kept up with renewed vigor, till 
the full triumph of those principles and reforms, for 
which the Democratic party stands, shall be written 
boldly and defiantly on its banner. There is no room 
for doubt or discouragement in a cause that appeals to 
the people, and day by day is gaining strength in public 
opinion. A victory is of little consequence in a failing 
cause, and in a growing cause defeat is only an incentive 
to harder work. 

This club has to-night given its answer to Mr. Cleve- 
land's wise and patriotic words by declaring its unfail- 
ing belief in these reforms, and its purpose to advocate 
and uphold them. I do not propose to discuss them in 
detail, but to say a single word of the fundamental 
principle upon which they are founded, — a principle 
at the very basis of our Democracy, and I honestly be- 
lieve dividing the two great parties to-day in this 
country. Viewed broadly, the great principle of 
Democracy to-day is to regain for the people the 
right to govern themselves, and then to have the power 
of government used for their interests, and not for sel- 
fish purposes; that equal rights, privileges, burdens, 
and opportunities shall be extended to all citizens. 
What is ballot reform, to-day an accomplished success 
in Massachusetts ? Only this in its spirit and purpose, 
that every citizen, unawed by intimidation, free from 



292 YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DINNER. 

corrupt and improper influences, shall have the right 
to exercise a freeman's privilege in determining the 
policy of government and into whose hands power 
shall be intrusted. It is true that this reform has 
been carried by a union of both parties, and is to-day 
loyally supported by both parties. But the spirit and 
purpose of that reform to-day are and ever have been 
violated by the Republican party of this Commonwealth. 
What else is its declared purpose to uphold the law 
that taxes every man's right to vote ? It is in its 
purpose and spirit an attempt to disfranchise men in 
this Commonwealth because of their poverty, and to 
limit the suffrage to that extent. 

What is civil service reform ? Only this in its fun- 
damental principle, spirit, and purpose, — that the 
privileges and opportunities of government shall be 
open to all citizens, without distinction of race, re- 
ligion, or party, or any distinction other than that of 
merit ; and then that the great power of office shall be 
used for the benefit of all the people, and not for selfish 
and partisan purposes. The Democratic party in power, 
under the lead of President Cleveland, in spite of many 
objections, and notwithstanding an excusable spirit of 
revenge that was engendered by twenty-five years of 
merciless proscription, was loyal to that reform, and 
greatly advanced its progress; and to-day it stands as 
the just critic of a party which has violated its pledges, 
which has broken, or allowed its President to break, its 
plighted word, and which, outside of the narrow limits 
of law, has scattered that reform to the four winds of 
heaven. 

What is tariff reform ? Only a demand that taxa- 
tion — the greatest power of government, and carrying 
its greatest burdens — shall be limited to public pur- 
poses, and shall not be used to enrich one at the expense 



YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DINNER. 293 

of another, or to benefit a few at the expense of a whole 
people. 1 would not have believed until recently that 
any large proportion of our people would have boldly 
and seriously advocated that that power should be 
warped from its original purpose and made to divide 
our people into classes, — into those who get and those 
who give, into beneficiaries and taxpayers, — or that 
a great party would have boldly defended that policy 
upon the specious argument that those who got the 
benefits, somehow in their charity would distribute them 
to all, and that those who bore the burdens, somehow 
in God's providence would receive compensation for the 
taxes they were obliged to pay. Not only in this, but 
in the whole political programme of the Republican 
party, its conception of government is radically differ- 
ent from ours, and seems to be that its purpose is to 
distribute benefits at the discretion of the Republican 
party for the advantage of that party, blind to the fact 
that every bit of its power comes from the people, that 
every dollar of revenue is taken from their pockets, and 
can be rightfully used only for public purposes. A gov- 
ernment of bounties and of benefits by the Republican 
party, for the use of that party and its beneficiaries, is 
in strange contrast to the old principle of a government 
" of the people, by the people, and for the people. " 

Yet you may take the Republican programme, as 
declared in the platform of the party in 1888 and 
followed by the declarations, the acts, and the profes- 
sions of that party, and you will find this new principle 
underlying its policy. Take its position on the ques- 
tion of the tariff. For the first time, I venture to say, 
it advocates protection solely for protection's sake, 
regardless of any question of whether the government 
needs the revenue, or has any proper use for the rev- 
enue, or whether any public good is to be served by the 



294 YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DINNER. 

taxes that are thus laid, but with the avowed declara- 
tion that it has a right to place a burden upon all for 
the benefit of a few. 

Take its advocacy, now declared, of a system of boun- 
ties for a special interest. It is utterly regardless of 
the question of why that industry more than another, 
ortmore than all, has the right to tax the whole people 
for its special benefit. Take its advocacy of the ex- 
penditure of millions on education in doing the work 
that the States can and ought to and will do, and 
will be better and stronger States because of doing it. 
National gifts do not come without National control 
behind them I think that any State that is looking 
longingly to the Treasury of the United States to help 
it in education, might well quote the lines of the old 
poet, "I fear the Greeks, even when they come bear- 
ing gifts." 

Take the policy of the Republican party in the mat- 
ter of pensions. I have been often told that this was a 
delicate subject for any man to touch who ever had 
been or expected to be in public life. It is time that 
some man uttered what we believe to be the true prin- 
ciples with reference to the pension system of this 
country. No man of any party doubts that this country 
should be just and liberal to every veteran who has 
suffered in her behalf. But there is a wide difference 
between that policy and one which overlooks the fact 
whether a man has suffered or not, whether he is 
to-day suffering or not, whether he made sacrifices 
for his countrv, or whether he deserted her in her 
hour of peril. There is a wide difference between mak- 
ing the pension-roll a roll of honor which shall point out 
to all people and to all times that these were the men 
who bravely gave their blood that this country might 
live, and establishing the principle that patriotism is 



YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DINNER. 295 

a commodity that can be bought, and that the call 
of this country to her citizens to stand forth and de- 
fend her in her hour of peril was a call to them 
when the peril was over to present bills for what they 
did in those darlc and fateful days. We yield to no 
man and to no party in our unflinching patriotism, or 
in our gratitude to those brave men who answered 
bravely the call of their country. But we do believe 
that our President, the President of the whole people, 
was right when he said that the vast expenditures 
of this country should be carefully disbursed ; that 
there should be a distinction made between a loyal 
veteran and a cowardly deserter, and between the man 
who suffered in war and the man who suffered by his 
own misfortunes or his own negligence. 

Take, too, the Republican programme in reference 
to elections. The Republicans advocate now, in the 
message of their President and in the professed opin- 
ions of their leaders, that the National Government 
should step into the States and control their elec- 
tions. As National gifts are never made without Na- 
tional control, so National control is never exercised 
without National power behind it. The people of this 
country who remember the dark days that followed the 
reconstruction period, who remember the days of '76, 
when National bayonets controlled the ballots of the 
people, have, I believe, no desire that that regime should 
be restored, or that the power of this Nation should 
undertake to influence our elections. 

And what does it all mean ? Study the President's 
message, study the Republican platforms, and tell me 
if there is not between the two parties a difference more 
fundamental than any question of revenue or of tariff 
reform, — • if there is not that wide difference which ex- 
ists between a party that believes the government is to 



296 YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB DINNER. 

use its power under partisan control for special and for 
selfish interests, and a party that believes the power 
of government springs from the people, and is to be 
limited to their purposes and to accomplish their 
wishes, and theirs only. 

It is time that some party should stand forth to 
oppose what seems to be the tendency of these times. 
No party is so well fitted for that work, none can do it 
and still be so loyal to its history, its traditions, and 
its principles, as the Democratic party, which is and 
ever has been the people's party, which now serves and 
ever has served only the people's cause. I should be 
untrue to myself, and I know I should be untrue to the 
Democratic party of this State, if I took my seat with- 
out thanking the club for the useful, earnest, unselfish 
work it has done in the political battles that are past. 
It is a regiment of young men having no other purpose 
to serve than the good of the people and the enforce- 
ment, in law, of the Democratic faith. I do not believe 
that we are banded together to advance the interests of 
any man, except as that man can advance the interests 
of the Democratic party and enforce the faith of that 
party. I am sure, with our growing numbers and our 
great power, that we shall enter on the battles yet 
before us with renewed vigor, confident that an appeal 
to the conscience and patriotism of this old Common- 
wealth will at last turn Massachusetts from the error 
of her ways into the pleasant paths of Democracy. 



SPEECH 

AT NORWOOD, OCT. 11, 1890, UPOX THE TARIFF 
AND THE LOBBY. 

I THANK yoa for your hearty welcome. It is evi- 
dence of your sympathy with the party and the cause 
which it is my privilege to represent. It is your pro- 
test, too, against a party that has neglected the needs 
and wishes of our Commonwealth, that has not listened 
to her appeal nor considered her interests, but, cringing 
under party dictation, has dared to be disloyal to her. 

I am glad to open this campaign here in Norfolk 
County, where sturdy sons, carrying their sovereignty 
each under his own hat, have not hesitated to break 
away from a party their conscience could not follow. 
I come to discuss serious (juestions, and, appealing to 
your intelligence and patriotism, to ask you to decide 
if this is not the time when the interests of Massachu- 
setts and good government demand the defeat of the 
Republican party. 

Let me point out some signs of its degeneracy. 
First, in the men who lead it. I know that in all 
parties there is an overwhelming proportion of upriglit, 
patriotic men; but parties are judged by the power that 
controls them, the way it leads them, and the policy 
that it dictates. At the head of the National oro-aniza- 
tion of the Republican party to-day, by its assent and 
with its indorsement, stands a man denounced by his 
own party associates as a " branded criminal, " convicted 
by public opinion. 



298 SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 

At the head of one of the great departments of gov- 
ernment is another man, placed there only because he 
passed the hat for the Republican corruption fund. 
High also in administration is still another, who 
gloried in the fact that more than thirty thousand 
times he had violated the pledge of his party and the 
plighted word of its President by removing faithful 
officials for politics only; and that man was feasted, 
applauded, and honored here in Boston by the Repub- 
lican party. What, pray, is the moral condition of 
a party that submits to such leadership ? 

Next notice its utter indifference to the loss of 
thousands of men who gave it character, ability, and 
reputation. In every step of its downward career it 
has left behind a whole army of its supporters who could 
not and would not follow it further. Anions; them 
were many who had been its founders, leaders, mem- 
bers of Congress, presidents of its conventions, mem- 
bers of its committees in State and Nation, and others 
high in office abroad and at home. With them thou- 
sands of others, young men and old, and all men of 
character, guided only by their conscience, left it in 
utter disgust and despair at its evasion, hypocrisy, and 
lack of principle. Among these stands forth conspic- 
uouslv a brave and brilliant voung man, a son of 
Norfolk County, who has shown by his words and acts 
that he is a Democrat heart and soul. Democracy has 
honored him and itself by making him its candidate for 
Congress in this district. I am sure that, as he has stood 
by the people always, the people will now stand by 
him. 

At each further revolt from the Republican party, 
leaving it more and more in the clutch of selfish and evil 
influences, there is heard no demand for reform within 
its ranks, but only mocking taunts and sneers. I want 



SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 299 

no better evidence of the decay of a great party than 
the action of tlie Republican Convention of this year. 
Speaking through its chairman, it confessed the boss 
of many men of character, conscience, and intelligence, 
but boasted its indifference to the loss, slammed the 
door upon their backs, and bolted it with the epithet 
of " Scribes and Pharisees. " It did not add the word 
" hypocrite," as the Republican party still has the 
exclusive right to use that name. 

Next notice its extravagant and reckless abuse of 
power, and its utter disregard of law and precedent. 
It has increased expenditures by tens and scores of 
millions ; it has been ready to give everything to every- 
body who could give it votes, until Republican sena- 
tors have been compelled to discuss how long it will 
be before a deficit in the National Treasury shall com- 
pel the levying of new taxes on a long-suffering people ; 
it has passed important measures without giving an 
opportunity for discussion ; it has stifled debate, un- 
seated members elected by majorities of thousands, 
deprived a State of her chosen senators, violated the 
law and precedonts of a hundred years, and turned the 
House of Representatives from a deliberative body to a 
bear-garden, absolutely controlled by the dominant will 
of a single man, who determines what shall and what 
shall not be law. I know the House of Reed is quick. 
It has unseated a member in three minutes and a half. 
Is it safe ? Is it republican ? Is it true to the laM's 
and institutions of this country? The mills of God 
grind slowly. 

Notice again the defeat in the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature by the Republican party of such important meas- 
ures of reform as the law compelling a publication of 
campaign expenses, and the compulsory law to regulate 
the caucuses. These reforms were defeated because, 



300 SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 

though a benefit to the people, they would be an injury 
to the Republican party. Lastly, notice the evasion 
and hypocrisy of that party. I have time to give but 
one or two instances. 

First consider its record on the liquor question. It 
has passed a prohibitory law and repealed it as a con- 
fessed failure. It has passed prohibitory measures in 
the Senate, and defeated them in the House, and has 
then reversed the operation. It has voted for consti- 
tutional prohibition in the Legislature, and then de- 
feated it at the polls. It has nominated prohibitory 
candidates on license platforms, and, I believe, has 
reversed that operation also. And at last, on a plat- 
form that meant nothing, it nominated a candidate who 
would say nothing, but who now, as its Governor and 
leader, has proclaimed, as the climax of Republican 
thought and action on this question, the grand doctrine 
that a standing drink is sin, but a sitting drink is 
salvation. Meanwhile the Republican party sends 
its saints upon the stump to denounce the saloons, and 
its sinners around the corner to strike a bargain with 
them, by which it may retain its power in the State. 
I believe the people, no matter what their opinion on 
the liquor question may be, will all unite in crying 
shame upon such hypocrisy and deceit. 

Take as another illustration the tariff question. It 
has been the question of supreme importance ever since 
the brave message of President Cleveland awoke the 
people to a sense of the heavy, unjust, and unnecessary 
burdens laid upon them for selfish purposes. It has 
been almost the only question debated in Congress for 
months, and now at last it comes before the people 
for their decision. What does the Republican party 
in this State say upon this question ? Only a mere 
phrase, and that evasive, buried deep in a bottomless 



SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 301 

paragraph of a dreary platform; and yet hovf explicitly 
it might have spoken, and kept well within the line of 
past Republican professions ! It might have declared, 
with every Republican President, from Lincoln to Har- 
rison, in favor of a reduction of the tariff. It might 
have said, with its ex-President, that the McKinley Bill 
"is ruinous to all our best interests, and will do an 
infinite amount of harm." It might have declf^red, 
with its past Secretaries of the Treasury, and with 
Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson, in favor of free 
raw material and radical reductions of the tariff. Or it 
might have said, with its last Governor of this State, that 
the taxing of their raw material was tending "to wipe 
out the iron and steel industries, large and small, of 
New England," and had led to a " degradation of labor " 
here. It might have said, with Mr. Blaine, the Secretary 
of State, that there was not a lino or section in the 
whole McKinley Bill that would open to Americans a 
market for another bushel of wheat or another barrel of 
pork. Or it might have said, with one of its Western 
senators, that the Bill increases duties for which there 
is no popular demand, that it consulted the interests of 
the manufacturers, and not of the consumers, and that 
it "was a shelter for trusts." And then it might have 
joined in his righteous indignation with the "greed of 
the manufacturers," "the Carnegies and Joneses of 
Pittsburg, and the Dolans and Dobsons of Philadelphia, 
who have prospered and grown rich beyond the dreams 
of avarice at the expense of the people of the United 
States." Or if it wanted the milder language of milder 
men, it might have declared, with the leaders of its 
State Convention of 1884, in favor of a reduction of 
the tariff, enlarging the free list, and freeing entirely 
"those great necessaries of life which enter into the 
consumption of every household." At least it might 



302 SPEECH AT NOKWOOD. 

have followed its Convention of last year in demand- 
ino" a revision of the tariff to meet the changed indus- 
trial conditions of New England. 

But it said none of these things. Why ? Because 
under the power of selfish interests it has repudiated 
its past declarations, forgotten its pledges, and passed 
a measure which it cannot and will not in this State 
defejid; so it evades it and belittles it. I challenge 
the Republican party to go before the people of Massa- 
chusetts and show them that the McKinley Bill is in 
their interest. 

I have spoken of the leadcrshii), indifference, reck- 
lessness, and hypocrisy of the Republican party as 
evidence of its degeneracy. It has become a party of 
tactics rather than of principle, led by politicians 
rather than by statesmen, and controlled by wealth for 
its own purposes. From such a party it was as inevit- 
able that the McKinley Bill should come forth as that 
a corrupt tree should bring forth evil fruit. 

The Democratic party makes no demand, nor has it 
ever made any, for free-trade. There always has been 
and always will be a tariff in some form. But it docs 
cry " Stop " to protection run mad, especially when 
its mad career means injury, if not death, to Massa- 
chusetts interests. I propose to-night to discuss but 
one phase of the tariff question,— What will best meet 
the needs and wishes of Massachusetts, and serve her 
interests ? What did she want, and what did she get ? 
A brief statement will be the strongest argument. She 
wanted, first, cheaper necessaries of life for the benefit 
of all her people. The Republican Convention in this 
State in 1884 demanded this, but since 1888 that party 
has lost its regard for the people in its greater regard 
for selfish interests which are hostile to them. Now 
it thinks it is a cheap man who wants a cheap coat. 



SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 303 

How does the McKinley Bill meet this demand? By 
increasing taxation and raising the cost of almost every 
necessary of life ; food, clothing, and shelter, all are 
raised. The day's wages will not bring as much com- 
fort as they did. The Republicans have deliberately 
made it harder for the poor to live. The poor asked 
for bread, and were given a stone. For whose benefit 
was this ? For the benefit of the few, to make money 
out of this burden upon all. 

What next did Massachusetts want ? A thorough 
revision of the tariff to meet "her changed business 
conditions." That was the Republican platform last 
year. What are her changed business conditions ? 
Her foreign commerce is gone, her agriculture de- 
pressed, her iron industry dying, her glass industry 
dead, her carpet and woollen industries are suffering, 
her leather, boot, and shoe industries dependent for their 
prosperity upon untaxed hides, her new and growing 
electric industry needing free copper and mica, her 
canning industry free tin, and all her industries de- 
manding that the hand of the law be lifted from them, 
that for their life and growth they be given free raw 
material, and that our ports be opened to give us 
an equal chance in the fierce competition with the 
West and South. 

Nearly six hundred iron and steel industries of 
New England, including nearly all of any impor- 
tance, without regard to party, petitioned for free 
coal and iron ore, and a reduction on iron, pig, and 
scrap. One half of the iron furnaces in New England ^ 
have gone out in the last ten years, and many dependent 
iron industries, like nails and shovels and the foun- 
dries, have been suffering and have died. The facts 
are known to all. The industry itself says that but 
one thing can save it from death, and that is the 



304 SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 

granting of its petition. But the Republican party 
spurned the petition. Its Congressmen and its mem- 
bers of the Legislature refused their aid to a demand 
that is vital to this great industry. That party 
chose to stand with the mine-owners of Lake Superior 
and of Pennsylvania rather than with Massachusetts, 
and for selfish interests rather than for the public 
welfare. 

Five hundred and thirty woollen manufacturers and 
dealers petitioned for free wool. More than once the 
woollen industry has stated its need of free wool. 
McKinley said there was no reason for free hides that 
did not apply with equal force to free wool. What 
answer Avas given to this demand and need of one of our 
greatest industries? A decided increase of duties up- 
on wool was the only answer; and this injury to our 
industry, and this new burden on the whole people, 
was inflicted only because the wool-growers demanded 
it. Again the Republican Congress and our Repub- 
lican Legislature stood with the few rather than 
with the whole people, with Ohio rather than with 
Massachusetts. 

One hundred and fifty-eight builders, contractors, 
architects, masons, and others protested against any 
increase in the taxes on building material, especially 
on lime. That protest was unheeded, and taxes were 
again raised, and with them the cost of every home in 
the land, while an injury Avas also done to the Avholo 
building industry and its tens of thousands of laborers. 
The Republican party stood with the lime trust of 
Rockland rather than make it easier for the poor to get 
a home. 

Take another industry, in which this town has a 
peculiar interest. Here are tanneries employing hun- 
dreds of men. It is a great and growing industry in 



SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 305 

Massachusetts, In 1885 nearly 10,000 persons were 
employed in it, who made $28,000,000 worth of goods. 
In the boot and shoe industry, that is closely connected 
with it, there were employed 65,000 persons, — a larger 
number than in any other industry; and they manufac- 
tured 1114,000,000 worth of product. In 1872 the 
Republican party took off the taxes upon hides, and 
immediately there followed a great growth of the 
leather and shoe industries. Our exports of leather 
made here, and giving employment to our own men, 
increased from $500,000 to nearly 110,000,000 a year, 
going into the markets of the world with a profit 
in competition with the labor of the world. Cities 
like Brockton and Lynn, and the shoe towns of the 
State, grew as they never had grown before under 
the impetus given them by free raw material for 
their industry. 

What does the McKinley Bill do for this great indus- 
try? You remember well the agitation of last spring, 
and the intent then of the Republican party to put back 
the tax on hides. From every shoe centre, from boards, 
of trade, from our Press, and from our whole people, 
there went up an indignant and unanimous protest. 
That tax meant injury, if not destruction, to one of our 
greatest industries. Yet in the heat of that agitation 
the Republican party in our Legislature deliberately and 
emphatically refused to make its protest against the 
wicked and fatal tax. But the voice of Massachusetts 
was heard in spite of the action of the Republican party. 
Hides were left on the free list. Still, we have by no 
means escaped the danger. There has been put into 
the McKinley Bill a provision that if the President is 
satisfied that any country from which we get our hides 
does not give us an equal advantage in trade by Jan- 
uary, 1892, then "it shall be his duty," by proclama- 

20 



306 SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 

tion, to put a tax of a cent and a half a pound upon 
hides. That is, if things remain as they are to-day 
between us and the Argentine Republic, the President 
is compelled to put a tax on hides. 

The danger that threatens us is postponed, but not 
averted. Unless Massachusetts utters her protest now 
against the McKinley Bill, her vote will be taken as an 
indorsement of this, and of all its provisions. If she 
assents to that Bill now, she will have then no right to 
complain if in 1892 she finds a tax on the raw mate- 
rial of her greatest industry, and that industry suffer- 
ing and declining as her iron industry is to-day. If 
free hides are so vital to the leather and shoe industry, 
why are not free coal and iron to the iron industry, 
and free wool to the woollen industry ? If one industry 
has its raw material free, why not all ? 

Let me pass now to one or two other industries of 
Massachusetts. Take the tin and the canning indus- 
try. This has become one of the important industries 
of the country, existing here and in almost every 
State, giving employment in it and in its dependent 
industries to many persons. Its raw material, tin 
plate, has been taxed at one cent a pound, though not 
a pound of it has been produced in this country. Not 
a living soul in the country could possibly be injured 
by taking off that tax, and the whole canning in- 
dustry would be greatly benefited, and every one of 
our people would get their tin and their canned 
goods cheaper. But ten or twelve capitalists of Pitts- 
burg demanded of the Republican party that this tax 
should be raised. So the Republicans have raised it 
from one cent to two and two-tenths cents a pound, — 
an increase upon the amount used by us last year of 
from $7, 000, 000 to nS, 000, 000. That is, 115, 000, 000 
are to be taken out of the pockets of the people, to the 



SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 307 

injury of an industry and its numerous employees, at 
the demand of these capitalists of Pittsburg to add 
to their already enormous fortunes. Again the Repulj- 
lican party has stood with the few and the wealthy 
against the manifest interest of Massachusetts and of 
the peojjle of the whole country. 

Our great electric industry is another that has not 
escaped a blow at the hands of the Republican party. 
Till the passage of this bill, mica, which is used by 
that industry, had been upon the free list. But there 
is a little mine in New Hampshire, employing thirty or 
forty men, that demands its share of the people's taxes 
in the grab and the divide which the Republican party 
is making. Notwithstanding that Senator Aldrich, in 
charge of the bill, said that this was "protection run 
mad," yet the Massachusetts senators voted in favor 
of putting a duty upon mica, and to-day that, too, is 
taxed. 

I might go farther, and show you how the farmers, 
too, have been injured by high-tariff taxation, their 
farms and their products declining as the result. To 
them this bill gives a mock protection, and raises the 
cost of the necessaries of life. No wonder that all 
over the country farmers' alliances are protesting 
against such taxation. No wonder that the President 
of the National Farmers' Alliance, in speaking of the 
decline of agriculture and the distress of the farmers, 
uttered these words to the verv committee that was 
framing the McKinley Bill: "We protest, and with all 
reverence, that it [their distress] is not God's fault. 
We protest that it is not the farmers' fault. We 
believe, and so charge solemnly and deliberately, that 
it is the fault of the financial system, — a system that 
has placed on agriculture an undue, unjust, and intoler- 
able proportion of the burdens of taxation." 



308 SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 

But I must stop. I have shown you the effect of tliis 
bill on some Massachusetts industries and interests. Is 
it not true that her wishes and needs have been utterly 
disregarded ? She raises now no issue as between pro- 
tection and free-trade, makes no war on a proper, just, 
and moderate tariff taxation, laid in the interest, not 
of a class, but of the whole people, but she does object 
to protection run mad, as in McKinley's "bill of 
abominations. " 

Surely she must often recall the words of Scripture : 
"And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my 
brother ? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with 
the right hand to kiss him. But Amasa took no heed 
to the sword that was in Joab's hand : so he smote 
him therewith in the fifth rib." Protection said to 
Massachusetts, " Art thou in health ? " And Protection 
took Massachusetts by the hand to kiss her : but Massa- 
chusetts took no heed to the sword that was in Protec- 
tion's hand, and so Protection smote her therewith 
in the fifth rib. It is protection, which is a shelter 
for trusts and a cloak for selfish interests, that has 
smitten Massachusetts; and Massachusetts' sons, her 
Republican representatives, by their voice and their 
votes, have directed the blow. 

The control of legislation by selfish interests exists 
in this State as well as in the Nation, and demands an 
immediate and thorough remedy. 

A year ago I charged against the Republican party 
that it had allowed an irresponsible third body to exist 
which stood between the people and the Legislature, 
controlling legislation against the people's interest. 
I come to-night to repeat that charge, and to ask if 
any one now doubts the truth of what I said. I have 
no personal attack to make upon any one, but only 
an attack upon an evil system. That attack I shall 



SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 309 

not be deterred from making by any personal threats 
or sneers, as unjust and untrue as they are mali- 
cious. It is the right of every person, town, corpora- 
tion, or interest to have its case heard publicly and 
fairly, either in a court of law or before the General 
Court of the people. It is the right and duty of any 
lawyer thus to act for a client. I have had the 
experience of every lawyer in active practice in this 
State. Sometimes I have had a corporation for a 
client; more often I have been against corporations. 
For no client have I ever done, or been asked to do, 
any act that was not strictly within the line of profes- 
sional work. I had nothing whatever to do, directly 
or indirectly, with the legislation of last winter in 
reference to the West End or any elevated road, nor 
have I to-day any connection with any such road. 
The people of this Commonwealth have no fault to 
find with the public, proper advocacy of the cause of 
a client. They do object to the existence of a secret, 
irresponsible body that stands like a giant robber be- 
tween the people and their Legislature, demanding 
money of every interest that comes within its reach. 
With this personal statement I repeat my charge 
against the Republican partj^ If the fire of personal 
attack and misrepresentation is to gather about my 
head, so be it. I will address myself and my cause to 
the justice of the people of this Commonwealth. But 
so long as God shall give me strength will I, in the 
people's name, denounce this irresponsible body that 
undertakes to control legislation for selfish purposes 
against the people's interest. 

Docs it exist? When I made this charge a year ago, 
my distinguished opponent denied that it existed ; said 
that it was a false issue and a false pretence; averred 
that the talk of a State House ring was flippant ; and 



310 SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 

called for specifications. I produced the report of 
a Republican committee of the Senate, another of 
a Republican committee of the House, the veto of a 
Republican Governor, and the confession of the leading 
Republican papers of Massachusetts, all admitting its 
existence, all regretting and denouncing it. In the 
light of the investigation of last spring, does any one 
now doubt its existence? Ask the farmers of this State 
how it happens that measures in which they are deeply 
interested are defeated year after year. Ask the work- 
ing-men how it happens that labor bills which seem to 
have a strong popular support are defeated. Ask the 
people how it happens that a bill, supported almost 
unanimously by the Press, by boards of trade, and by 
the people, — a bill intended to relieve them from 
unnecessary railroad charges, — is defeated. If I am 
not mistaken, they will tell you that these measures 
have been assassinated by an unseen, irresponsible 
power. 

It is due to every interest seeking legislation that 
it should obtain a fair and a full hearing, without 
paying tribute to the lobby. It is due to the Legisla- 
ture that it should not be beset by such secret influ- 
ences. It is due to the Commonwealth that this body, 
which has grown up and has thrived under Republican 
administration, — a body for which that administration 
is alisolutely responsible, — should be eradicated. 

What is the remedy? First, something more than to 
legalize the lobby. Measures should be adopted tend- 
ing to limit or exterminate it. Next, let the Governor 
of the Commonwealth declare that any Act which comes 
to him tainted with improper influences cannot become 
a law with his approval. Speaking as the candidate 
of the people's party, charged with the duty of serving 
their interests only, I pledge myself, if elected, to use 



SPEECH AT NORWOOD. 311 

every power within my reach to apply these remedies 
to this evil. 

My friends, I have detained you too long. I thank 
you for your kindness and your patience. In closina-, 
let me impress upon you this one thing which underlies 
all that I have said. The one great evil in public life 
to-day is the selfish, grasping influence of wealth, that, 
seizing political power, uses it for its own purposes. 
It asserts the right to tax the whole people for its 
benefit. It creates a high tariff, and under this 
shelter greedy trusts prey upon the people's pockets. 
It turns the people's law against the people's interests. 
In the light of this growing evil, how impressive are 
these words of an early Democratic President : — 

"I would persuade my countrymen that it is not in a 
splendid government, supported by powerful monopolies and 
aristocratic establishments, that they will find happiness, or 
their liberties protection, but in a j^lain system, void of 
pomp, protecting all, and granting favors to none, dispens- 
ing its blessings like the dews of heaven, unseen and unfelt, 
save in the freshness and beauty they contribute to j^roduce. 
It is such a government that the genius of our people re- 
quires, such a one only under which our States may remain 
for ages to come united, prosperous, and free." 

The time has come for this Commonwealth, which 
has led in many a glorious agitation, now to lead in 
demanding the right of the people to govern themselves, 
free from these selfish and money influences. Will 
Massachusetts indorse the Repulflican administration 
and the evils it has brought to her and the country, 
or, by her protest, now lead the country to better and 
to purer things ? 



SPEECH 

AT hOWKLL, OCT. 10, ISJO. ITON THE TARIFF. 

SOMEWHAT woariod bv the labor of the campaig'ii, 
vour cordial irrootiuu" dioers ami inviiioratos luo, 
iriving uio now oourairo ami stronjitli to tiirht the 
people's battle. Before enteriuii: to-night into a dis- 
cussion of the serious questions of this campaiirn, I 
wish to say u word about a little family scene in the 
Hepublican party as described in yesterday's "Herald." 
It occurred at one of those soul-inspirinp:, truth- 
provoking club dinners where the Republicans discuss 
the great questions of the ilay before a magniticent 
audience of a score or two of their stalwarts, and 
trv to educate them into a belief in the old partv, 
and if possible to arouse iu them a little enthusiasm. 
Occasionally in their feast of reason and flow of soul 
they become frank, and speak right out in meeting. 
8o it happened at the Middlesex Club on Saturday. 
The principal actors appear to have been ^[r. Lodge and 
the chairman of the Hepublican State Committee. 
After the club had expressed its unaninu^us sentiment 
that it was a great mistake for the Kepubl leans to 
talk tariff, :\[r. Lodge repeated the "oft-told tale" of 
Southern outrages, and then he sprang something 
new. The report says: — 

'" He vigorously assailed the policy of the KepuMioan State 
Committee in not putting more speakei"s in the tield to meet 
the energ(.»tio campaign being prosecuted by the IVmoerats. 



SPEECH AT LOWELL, 313 

The cliairman sharfjly ropliod that money was needed to do 
wliat Mr. Lodge required. 'Give me money eiiougli,' he said, 
in conclusion, 'and 1 can do it. Jiut even Mr. Lodge Ijim- 
self cannot do it by simply standing up and talking in his 
own district; ' and he added, ' If these gentlemen who criti- 
cise would themselves address the meetings they say ought 
to be held, the result would be different.' " 

The report closes by saying, — 

''In spite of a request on the part of the cliairman that 
Mr. Lodge would remain and hear him out, that gentleman 
abruptly left the room, and lost the concluding words of 
reply, and thus ended the speaking." 

I should think it would have. It was a good 
stopping-place. They say they want more speakers 
and more money to meet the energetic campaign of 
the Democrats. We thank you, gentlemen. A week 
ago you thought the Democrats had to import their 
speakers to make a campaign. Now you think, with 
only home talent, they are making an energetic one. 
You jeered at imported Democratic speakers; but since 
then, with true Republican consistency, you have 
imported Reed and Hale and Frye and Dingley and 
J3outelle, and nearly the whole State of Maine. And 
now you want more money to get more speakers. Of 
course you do not pay your home talent. If you 
must hire outsiders, let me make a friendly sugges- 
tion to help you out of your trouble. Why don't you 
advertise ? 

WANTED. — Campaign speakers to help out the Republi- 
can party of Massachusetts; work light, and pay good; no 
special experience or knowledge of public questions required. 
Applicants must have a good voice, strong epithets, a few 



314 SPEECH AT LOWELL. 

Southern outrages, and a photograph of Tom Eeed, or a tin- 
type of Cabot Lodge. It is imperative that they should 
know nothing, and say less, on the tariff question. McKinley 
prices paid. 

Such an advertisement inserted in the daily papers 
would be certain to get you what you want. Then, for 
money, why do you not take some of the manufacturers in 
Massachusetts who have benefited by the McKinley Bill, 
— if you can find one, — and fry the fat out of them ? 
If you cannot find one, take some of the Pennsylvania 
manufacturers whom you have allowed to fatten on 
Massachusetts industries, and fry them. If these sug- 
gestions fail, why not draw again on your home market ? 
You have not exhausted it yet. Where is his Excel- 
lency the Governor ? Why don't you draft him ? The 
people as well as the Middlesex Club would like to 
hear from him. They would like to know again his 
exact views on the liquor question ; what he thinks of 
the success of his standing-sitting drink solution of this 
problem ; whether he believes now there is a lobby at 
the State House ; and his opinion on other real live 
questions. State and National. If you cannot conve- 
niently arrange dates for him, I will agree to share my 
time with him any and all evenings, until the end of 
the campaign, for the discussion of these questions. 

It is not the lack of speakers on the Republican side, 
but the lack of justice and right in their cause that 
makes their campaign drag. It is such stabs in their 
policy and in their McKinley Bill as have been given 
by their candidate in the third congressional district 
that takes the life out of their campaign; and the fact 
that the Republican party has refused to listen to the 
demands of Massachusetts especially for free raw mate- 
rial. No matter how great the benefit to the industries 



SPEECH AT LOWELL. 315 

and to the people, the Republican party refuses to reduce 
or remove tariff taxes ; and it insists that they shall be 
kept on and raised higher if any small selfish interest 
demands it. It does so either because it is bound hand 
and foot to such selfish interests and is under obligations 
to them, or because it is tied to a policy that it will follow, 
no matter if for a benefit to a few it burdens the whole 
people and crushes the industries of a whole section. 

1 want to show you a few of these burdens where the 
tariff tax has been raised by the McKinley Bill, and I 
will take articles that are within the description of 
the necessaries of life. Let us take first some articles 
that enter into the construction of a house. That bill 
increased the tariff tax upon lime and joists and boards 
and cedar posts and brick and tiles and glue and iron 
locks and handles and hinges and screws and window 
glass and cement, and many other articles that I might 
mention, the increase running all the way from five to 
twenty-five per cent upon these articles. Now, suppose 
that, notwithstanding this load of taxation, you have 
been able to build your house, and you come to the 
question of furnishing it. I have here a list of no fewer 
than twenty-four articles upon which the McKinley 
Bill has raised the tariff' tax, — such articles, for exam.- 
ple, as carpets and furniture and crockery and glass 
ware and blankets and linen and cutlery and oil-cloth 
and brushes and brooms, and so on. 

Then, having succeeded in building and furnishing 
his house, if by good fortune the man of slender means 
has still anything left, his next thought will be 
properly to clothe his wife, his children, and himself. 
At this point he will find the McKinley Bill has in- 
creased the tariff taxes on dresses and stockings and 
cloaks and braids and collars and cuffs and buttons 
and corsets and shawls, and almost every article that 
enters into a person's clothing. 



316 SPEECH AT LOWELL. 

Now, what was to be the effect, and what has been 
the effect, of raising still higher all these tariff taxes 
upon the necessaries of life ? Do yon think these 
changes were made for the purpose of lowering prices ? 
Well, how were they brought about ? Did the peo- 
ple ask for them ? No, those who had contributed to 
the Republican campaign demanded as a return for 
their contributions that these taxes should be raised. 
In every case you will find that the people who had 
goods to sell made this demand. It was the political 
shepherds of Ohio who had wool to sell that demanded 
the higher duties upon wool. It was the iron kings of 
Pennsylvania who had iron and steel to sell that wanted 
a higher tariff upon these articles. It was the Lime 
Trust with lime to sell, and the Glass Trust with glass 
to sell, and the owners of the coal mines of Pennsyl- 
vania with coal to sell, — these are the men who made 
the demand and who alwavs stand behind high-tariff 
duties. Do you think that they wanted high or higher 
duties to make the goods cheaper which they had to 
sell ? It is absurd on the face of it. They wanted 
higher duties to raise prices, and so they boldly pro- 
claimed. And behind them stood a Republican Presi- 
dent and the Republican party, who denounced cheapness 
as un-American and undesirable, and meant to prevent 
it if possible. 

You cannot show behind one of these increases in 
the McKinley Bill a demand for it by the consumers 
or by the people. And why ? Because they know well 
what is plain common-sense, that the whole purpose 
and object of the increase were to raise prices, and 
that the ])ill would fail of its object if it did not 
raise prices. 

I might give you numerous instances to show the 
injury and selfishness and wrong of such taxes. I 
will give one other. Until the passage of this Repub- 



SPEECH AT LOWELL. 317 

lican Mclvinlcy Bill the silver ores of Mexico contain- 
ing lead were admitted free. With these ores free, 
large smelting industries were built up in man)- of 
our States that use and depend upon these ores for 
fluxing. From 1881 to 1889, the Mexican ores being 
free, our imports of lead into the United States largely 
decreased, and the exports of lead from the United 
States largely increased. Evidently these ores were 
doing no harm to any home market. Seventeen smelt- 
ing companies in Pennsylvania, Kansas, Illinois, New 
Jersey, and other States, employing thousands of men, 
protested against a duty on the Mexican ores, and said 
it meant injury, if not death, to them. Commer- 
cial clubs and boards of trade in Kansas City and 
other places also made their vigorous protests. Even 
our minister to Mexico sent in his protest. All 
declared that such a duty meant serious injury to 
American industries and the breakimr down of a laro-o 
and profitable trade with Mexico. In 1888 we exported 
to Mexico $14, .500, 000 worth of our goods, and 
imported about the same amount of her products and 
ores. These facts would seem to be sufficient to pre- 
vent this tariff tax ; but they were not. On the con- 
trary, the Republicans put on a tax of one and one-half 
cents on the lead in these ores. Now, let us see how 
they happened to do this. The St. Joseph Lead Com- 
pany of Missouri, with a few others, demanded it, and 
of course got it. Perhaps they had contributed some 
"fat " to the Republican party. Of course they did not 
give that as the reason for wanting this duty, oh, no ; 
they said they wanted it for the benefit of American 
labor. Here is their exact language: — 

" Wliat we demand is a fair and just protection which 
shall protect American labor and develop American resources, 
and render reasonable profits to the capital we have invested 
under promise of s\ich polic}'." 



318 SPEECH AT LOWELL. 

And yet the fact is that the company making that 
false pretence in the year 1889 declared a stock and 
cash dividend of more than forty-one per cent on its 
capital, and was paying its laborers at its mines -11 a 
day in wages. 1 read from the local paper, the " Inde- 
pendent Register," which is published in the imme- 
diate vicinity of these mines. It says : — 

''Upon a capital stock of $1,500,000 a total of forty-one 
and one-third per cent, or $620,000, has been made for this 
year, which is equal to a profit to the stockholders of $41.33 
upon every $100. While this is so, the common laborers at 
their mines get $1 per day of ten hours' work, and the 
managers tell them that on account of the low price of lead 
they cannot pay more. Be it remembered, too, that the 
above is the net profit of a corporation whose president, J. 
Wyman Jones, last j^ear at the beginning of the Presidential 
campaign, rushed into print, calling upon his employees to 
vote for the party which pledged protection to American 
homes, American working-men, and American industries. 
It seems to us that while the lead industry made under pro- 
tection a profit of over forty per cent, that bonus goes into 
the pockets of investors, of employers, and not into those of 
the working-men." 

Now who were injured, and who were benefited by 
this new tax ? 

First, all the smelting companies in the United 
States using these ores and their employees were 
injured. Already one company, the El Paso Smelting 
Company, is said to have moved its industry to Mexico, 
and another, the International Smelting Company, to 
be about to move to Mexico. In the next place, rail- 
roads built by American capital lose in freights 
directly and indirectly nearly !|1,500,000 per year on 
these ores. Further, it is an injury to our trade with 
Mexico, and for that reason especially our minister 



SPEECH AT LOWELL. 319 

there protested against it. And lastly, the whole 
people, as users of lead and other products, are injured. 
Now, who are benefited ? The St. Joseph Lead Com- 
pany, and perhaps a few Colorado miners. A Repub- 
lican Senator from Kansas, in discussing this duty, 
said : " I know one excellent man in Colorado to whom 
this bill means probably an income of -1750,000 or 
$1,000,000 a year more than he is getting now." He 
added : " There is nothing so soft as to have a good 
grip on the law-making power, so as thereby to make it 
tolerably certain that you shall not be subject to muta- 
tions which attach to the performance of ordinary 
business." And then he uttered these words of warn- 
ing; "I confess that it seems to me that the building 
up of large fortunes by the direct operation of a law of 
the United States, made by representatives of all the 
people, and presumably for the benefit of all, is not 
wholesome, and ought to be justified only by excep- 
tional circumstances. I can conceive that the accumu- 
lation of these fortunes would lead to very considerable 
discontent and feeling as to the benefits of legislation 
not equally conferred." He said further in the same 
debate : " We are coming to that point where the sys- 
tem of protection as applied is to result in the breaking 
down of certain industries for the benefit of others; 
where the large industries which have the most poten- 
tial voice in Congress are to destroy the small ones." 

T have given instance after instance during this cam- 
paign of just such tariff taxes, which not only are no 
benefit to labor or to our industries, but are a great 
injury to them, and a gross injustice to the whole 
people, and which bring enormous wealth to the few 
"who have a good grip on the law-making power." 
Under no principle of justice or equality of law can 
such taxes be defended for a minute. 



SPEECH 

AT FALL EIVER UPON LABOR LEGISLATION, AND THE 
TARIFF IN ITS RELATION TO WAGES AND TO THE 
COTTON INDUSTRY. 

I APPRECIATE your cordial greeting, and the priv- 
ilege of addressing this audience of working-men, 
who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, and 
who are the backbone of the great industries here, 
bringing by their skill and labor i)rosperity to them, 
and building up this great manufacturing city. I have 
come to talk to you of the issues of this campaign, 
and to discuss with you which party, by its policy and 
its principles, is your truest friend, and which best 
advances your interests. 

A sound public policy, just and equal laws, are 
more important to wage-earners than to any one else. 
Wealth can always protect itself. It does not need 
the strong arm of the law to save it from oppression; 
but the poor, for their rights, their liberty, and their 
safety, must look to the justice and equality of law. 
A hard law bears hardest on the poor; an unjust 
policy puts its burden upon them. Selfish control of 
legislation which makes fortunes for the rich inevitably 
filches that money from the pockets of the masses of 
the people. 

Let us see now how the two great parties approach 
the questions of to-day, and which best and most 
unselfishly serves the people. 

This is the season of the year when the Republican 
party goes about telling labor how much it has done 



SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 821 

for it. But labor is not often deceived by such talk. 
It knows that in its own party, the Democratic party, 
rest its hope and promise of wise and just legislation. 
In proof of this, examine the record of the two parties 
in this State on labor legisUxtion. 

A year ago I charged that the Republican party had 
not listened to the demands of labor for just and bene- 
iicial legislation, or had only listened when compelled 
to by Democratic importunity. 

What is the first demand of labor? 

If I am not mistaken, it is the abolition of the poll- 
tax as a qualification for voting, rightly believing that 
a man, because of his manhood, and not his property, 
should be allowed to vote. We know that this tax has 
served no good purpose, but has led to corrupt and evil 
influences in public life. For years and years the 
Democratic party has urged that it be abolished, but 
always the Republican party has refused to abolish it. 
Once or twice in the Legislature it has voted to abolish 
it; but as it is necessary that two successive Legisla- 
tures should vote for its abolition, the Republican party 
always manages the second year to defeat this measure. 
And this it does notwithstanding that, as far back as 
1853, such Republicans as Sumner and Wilson, Boutwell 
and Burlingame, and many others I might mention, 
voted for its abolition. Why cannot the Rejmblican 
party of to-day rise to the height of Wilson, who justly 
said that poverty was hard enough to bear, without 
adding to it the degradation of disfranchisement ? 

Let us see what labor legislation has been enacted 
in this State, and how it came to be enacted. 

It is true that many just and wise laws have been 
passed in the interest of labor. It is also true that 
many others have been defeated by the Republican 
party. Every one that has been passed, I believe, 

21 



322 SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 

without exception, has been suggested by a Democrat 
r.nd foiiglit for by the Democratic party; and ahnost 
all of them have finally passed only after the Repub- 
lican party had repeatedly defeated them, but yielded 
at last to Democratic importunity. 

Let me give you some instances of this. The weekly 
and fortnightly payment law was advocated by the 
Democratic party as early as 1882. In that year, and in 
1884 and 1885, the Republican party defeated it; but it 
was finally passed in 1886 by the Democratic party, 
Avith the aid of some Republicans whom it was able to 
detach from their party. 

The same is true of the Board of Arbitration Act. It 
was introduced by a Democrat, was defeated by the Re- 
publican party in 1881, and several times later, and was 
finally passed only because of its support by the Demo- 
cratic party, with the aid of such Republicans as the 
Democrats could get to join them. 

So, too, with the Employers' Liability Act. Year 
after year it was introduced by Democrats, supported 
by them, defeated by the Republicans, and finally 
passed because the Republican party could not with- 
stand popular pressure and Democratic importunity. 
And since its passage the Republican party has re- 
fused so to amend it as to make it more useful and 
to broaden its scope. 

So, too, with the Acts abolishing contract convict 
labor, incorporating labor societies, and making Labor 
Day a holiday. All were introduced by Democrats, 
supported by them, opposed by the Republicans, de- 
feated for several years by them, and finally successful 
because of this urgent and unflinching support by the 
Democratic party. 

I will not weary you with other instances. The 
same rule is true of all, that labor legislation has 



SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 323 

been suggested, supported, and fought for by the 
Democratic party, and always opposed by the Republi- 
can party, till finally it was compelled to yield. 

On the other hand, I could give you a long list of 
labor laws that have been defeated by the Republican 
party against Democratic protest. 1 hold in my hand 
a list of some of them. The Republicans defeated five 
in 1885, five in 1886, five in 1887, five in 1888, eleven 
in 1889, and fifteen in 1890, all of them laws de- 
manded in the interest of labor. Without attempting 
to mention all, let me refer to a few of them. They 
include a fifty-eight-hour law for women and children, 
otherwise known as a Saturday Half-Holiday Bill. 
This passed the House, but was defeated by a Repub- 
lican Senate, though all the Democrats voted for it. 
A bill to regulate the hours of labor for railroad 
employees, demanded by such employees, was defeated 
in the Republican House by an overwhelming Repub- 
lican vote, though supported almost unanimously by 
the Democratic party. So, too, a bill regulating the 
hours of tour workers and the Weavers' Fines Bill, and 
a bill to prevent discrimination by employers against 
members of labor societies, — all were introduced by 
Democrats, supported and urged by Democrats, and 
defeated by the Republican party. The same is true 
of the bill to extend the Employers' Liability Act, 
and to wipe out a distinction it makes which is thor- 
oughly unjust. By the law to-day (1890), in case 
of his instant death the wife and children of an em- 
ployee may recover damages; but if the death is not 
instantaneous, they cannot recover. The Democrats 
tried to amend this law, and allow recovery in either 
case; but the Republicans defeated it. So, too, the 
Republican party has defeated a law to forbid the 
employment of armed forces of Pinkerton detectives 



324 SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 

by private individuals. The Democrats believe that 
the public peace should be kept by the public authority, 
and that this grave duty and responsibility should be 
performed under official sanction, and not by private 
command for hire only. So, too, the Republican party 
has defeated an eight-hour law, a law requiring due 
notice of the reduction of wages, and numerous other 
labor measures that I might mention. It has defeated, 
also, great reform measures, in which you are all inter- 
ested, — such measures as the Caucus Act, to secure 
fair and honest caucuses, and also the Act requiring 
the ijublication of all campaign expenses, for the purpose 
of preventing the corrupt use of money in elections. 

Now, who have fought for these laws that have been 
enacted, and for the laws, too, that have been defeated ? 
Always Democrats and the Democratic party. 

Tq whom is credit due ? 

To the Republican party ? Not a bit of it. It is du3 
more to the Democratic party and to its faithful, loyal 
leaders ; for the persons who have opposed these meas- 
ures have been Republicans ever and always. 

With this fact in mind, let us consider the most im- 
portant National question of the day, — the question of 
the tariff. I propose to discuss it to-night especially 
from the side of labor ; but I think you will see that all 
sides of it are labor, except where men are unjustly 
making money out of it. 

When the glass industry died here in Massachusetts, 
and our iron furnaces went out, and great works like 
the Norway Iron and Steel Company and the South 
Boston Iron Company and the Fall River Iron Com- 
pany, and many other foundries and iron industries 
of Massachusetts closed down, it meant loss of work to 
thousands of men in this State, and in their enforced 
idleness an injury to all labor. That loss to you was 



SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 325 

directly caused by tariff taxes on coal and iron. So 
the industry itself has said. 

The " Boston Journal " docs not believe that that 
industry is suffering. It does not believe, either, 
that the tax on hides would be of any consequence to 
the leather industry, or that free coal would be of any 
use to us. There are none so blind as those who will 
not see, and none so obstinate as those Avhom loyalty 
to party compels to close their eyes to facts that arc 
evident to a whole people. It thinks I take a narrow 
view because I stand for Massachusetts rather than 
for Pennsylvania, and it says : " He does not recog- 
nize any community of interest between Pennsylvania 
and Massachusetts. If Pennsylvania prospers, it is 
nothing to him." 

I recognize the right of no State in this Union to 
take by law the life of the industries of another State; 
and when, instead of community of interest, there is 
conflict of interest, and National legislation is con- 
trolled by the State of Pennsylvania, and she and her 
millionnaircs, by abuse of the people's law, are killing 
the industries of our State, I stand every time for 
Massachusetts, and denounce the man or the party or 
the law that in such a fight is hostile to her. I think 
the most serious charge against the Republican party 
in Massachusetts to day is that, with the "Journal," 
it stands for Pennsylvania, and has been disloyal to 
our old Commonwealth. I mistake the temper of the 
people of this State if they indorse such conduct, or 
if Massachusetts has not spirit enough left to assert 
her rights and defeat any unfaithful son who does not 
dare to defend her. 

There is hardly an industry in ]\lassachusetts at 
which the Republican party has not struck or threatens 
to strike a blow in its McKinley Bill and high-tariff 



326 SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 

policy. This is true of the shipping, the iron, the 
woollen, the canning, the electric, the leather, the boot- 
and-shoe industries, and the building industry, with 
their scores of thousands of employees ; and the cotton 
industry only escapes because its principal raw material 
is beyond the reach of Republican tariff taxes, — unlike 
the necessaries of life, the taxes on which, as some one 
has said, reach everything, from the cradle to the grave, 
and would tax a man's eternal salvation if the Republi- 
cans could only get into the kingdom of Heaven. 

I say the cotton industry only escapes because its prin- 
cipal raw material is untaxed. Let me emphasize this. 
I find by the census of 1890 that more than $32,000,000 
is invested in the industry in this city, giving wages 
to over thirty-eight thousand hands, and making a 
product of nearly $25,000,000; that in Massachusetts 
the product of the cotton industry, with its principal 
raw material free, has increased, from 1880 to 1890, 
from 172,000,000 to -1100,000,000, and the number of 
hands employed from 61,000 to nearly 76,000; that the 
product of the woollen industry in Massachusetts during 
the same period has increased only from $67,500,000 to 
$72,500,000, and the hands employed from 38,000 to 
43,000. 

The same census shows that while throughout the 
country there was an increase in the product of the 
woollen industry, and in the number of hands em- 
ployed, yet the product of the silk industry, with its 
raw material free, during this period increased 112 
per cent; of the cotton industry, with cotton free, 39 
per cent; but of the woollen industry, with its raw 
material heavily taxed, but 26 per cent, and the average 
increase of the entire textile industry was 38 per cent. 
It also shows that though there was an increase of 
capital invested in the woollen industry, yet the num- 



SPEECH AT FALL KIVEK. 827 

ber of vvoollen mills decreased, between 1880 and 1890, 
from 1990 to 1312, and that in the year 1890, of these 
1312 mills 2G7 were idle. The census bulletin shows 
also that the raw material entering into cotton manu- 
factures is equal to nearly 44 per cent, other materials 
neai-ly 14 per cent, making the total proportion of 
material 57.69 per cent of every dollar's worth of 
goods, while the cost of labor was but 25.93 per cent. 
I am told that 1891 and 1892 were most prosperous 
years in your cotton industry, and that live new mills 
were constructed in 1892. 

Now, I ask what has been the reason of this ? And 
I assert that any manufacturer here will tell you that 
more than anvthing else it is due to the fact of the low 
cost of this raw material of the cotton industry. I find 
that the cost of cotton in 1891 was about 8 cents per 
pound, in 1892 from 7 to 8 cents, or the lowest price 
in these two years that has been known since the war. 
In 1890 the price ran from 9y3g to 12| ; in 1889 from 
9| to 11 1, and at about that average for many years 
previous. 

Now, suppose the Republican party could do with 
your industry what it does with the woollen and iron 
industries, and tax this raw material? What would 
be the result? Suppose they should put a tax upon 
imported Egyptian cotton, — which is used to some 
extent here, — as they do upon wool ; or suppose they 
w^ere able to raise the price of other cotton by taxing it, 
as they do the price of the raw material of other 
industries ? 

There could result but one thing; that is, it would 
put an end to the great benefits you are now getting 
from the low cost of your raw material. If its price is 
raised either by natural causes or by Republican tariff 
taxation, it means an increased cost of the product (of 



328 SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 

whose cost it makes nearly one-half) ; and this means 
a less demand for goods ; and with less demand comes 
less manufacture of them; and so less demand for 
labor, and necessarily lower wages. 

Now, they say that ail these high-tariff taxes, with 
their evident burdens, have been for the benefit of labor 
and to keep up wages. That is an absolutely false 
pretence. 

In the first place, killing New England industries 
does not help labor or wages. 

In the second place, the Republicans have claimed 
that high tariff makes lower prices. Of course this is 
not true ; but if true, their theory must be : high tariff 
to make lower prices, so as to make higher wages. 
The whole thing is an utter absurdity. You may 
make any comparison you please, and you cannot show 
that a high tariff fixes or raises wages. You may com- 
pare free-trade England with the high-tariff countries 
of Europe, and you will find wages lower under protec- 
tion on the Continent than in England. You may com- 
pare England under a high tariff and a low tariff', and 
the time when she had no protective tariff, and you 
will find that the wages were highest when the tariff 
was lowest. 

In our own country you may compare the period 
from 1850 to 1860, when we had our lowest tariff, with 
the period from 1870 to 1880, when we had a very high 
tariff, and you will find that in mannfacturing indus- 
tries during the first period wages increased 60 per 
cent, and during the last period only 22 per cent. 

You may compare the wages in highly protected 
industries and those in industries which are not 
protected, and you will find the highest wages in the 
industries where there is the least protection. Or you 
may go farther, and compare wages in the different 



SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 829 

States in this country, between which there is absolute 
free trade, a'nd you will find often a greater difference 
between the wages in different States than the differ- 
ence between wages here and in England. 

Tn the first place, let us compare what they call free- 
trade England with other countries that arc highly 
protected, and notice their scale of wages. 

The wages in the cotton industry in England are 50 
per cent higher than those in Germany, and 30 per 
cent higher than those in France, while their hours 
are shorter. In the woollen industry wages are 50 
per cent higher in England than in Germany, and from 
20 per cent to 35 per cent higher than in France. Yet 
France and Germany are both highly protected coun- 
tries, and England has a low tariff. Why are wages 
not highest in protected countries ? 

Next, England has had a high, a low, and no pro- 
tective tariff; and the wages there have always been 
increased most when the tariff was lowest. 

I read from a table of wages prepared by the great 
statistician, Robert Giffen, Nov. 20, 1883, making a 
comparison of wages in England under the high and 
low tariff ; and he shows by this table that the wages 
of weavers and warpers and spinners, and all labor 
employed in cotton and woollen industries, were from 
50 per cent to 150 per cent higher in England 
under free trade than Avhen she had a high protec- 
tive tariff. 

At the same time there came to her the greatest 
growth in her commerce, her industries, and her exports 
that she had ever known. The condition of her people 
improved. The amount of provisions used by them 
and comforts of life greatly increased, crime dim- 
inished, and by every sign that marks prosperity she 
was wonderfully benefited. 



330 SPEECH AT FALL EIVER. 

Let me state one other fact, taken from Carroll D. 
Wright's statistics, bearing on this question of wages. 
In England, from 1872 to 1880, there was an increase in 
wages of 5' per cent, while in the same period there was 
a decrease in Massachusetts of 5| per cent. 

But let us come to our own country for comparisons. 
We have had here a high tariff and a low tariff. We 
had a low, a very low, tariff long before England had. 
Our lowest tariff was from 1850 to 1860. During 
that period wages increased in the United States 60 
per cent, while under the high tariff, from 1870 to 1880, 
they increased only 22 per cent. 

Carroll D. Wright's Annual Report for 1884 shows 
that in Massachusetts, in such highly protected indus- 
tries as carpets, boots and shoes, furniture, leather, 
paper, silks and worsteds, the general average wages 
were lower in 1880 under high protection than they 
were in 1860 under a very low tariff, while the average 
wages in all industries were much higher in 1880 than 
in 1860. I have here, as further evidence, the report of 
the Labor Bureau of Illinois, which shows that wages 
in 1886 in 142 highly protected industries were, on an 
average, 18 per cent lower than in 1880, while in 12 
unprotected industries there was an increase of 24 per 
cent in wages during the same period. 

If high wages are due to a high tariff, we surely 
ought to find them hiahest in the industries that are 
protected, and- lowest in those industries that are not 
protected. But the fact is exactly the reverse. 

Taking the census of 1880, and dividing the total 
wages in an industry by the number of men employed 
in that industry, you Avill find that the wages are 
almost invariably less in the protected industry than in 
the one that has little or no protection. For instance, 
in the protected cotton industry the wages average i24o. 



SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 331 

while the wagx's of carpenters, who are unprotected, 
average $454. In the manufacture of men's clothing 
(protected), wages average $286, but the wages of bakers 
(unprotected) $419. So in silk goods, $292, but meat 
packing, $385 ; machine making, t^455, but printing and 
publishing, $522; iron and steel, $393, but stone work, 
$477. And many other instances could be given. 

Senator Cameron, the Republican senator from the 
State of Pennsylvania, in the discussion in the Senate 
on the McKinley Bill, introduced a piece of evidence 
that will be found on page 8964 of the " Congressional 
Record, " as follows : — 

"The laborers working in the iron-ore mines in the little 
Lehigli district between Heading and Alleutown ai'e receiv- 
ing but 80 cents a day. Mining operations were suspended 
during hay-making and harvesting because the miners were 
able to earn $1.25 among the farmers." 

John Jarratt, the man who spoke in McKinley 's 
district for the Republican party, testified in 1883, 
before the Senate Committee in reference to labor in 
the highly protected mining industries, as follows : 

''Sixty thousand heads of families, to whom probably two 
hundred thousand women and children are looking for sup- 
port, are in a pitiable and miserable condition, poorly paid, 
poorly clad, poorly fed, and poorly housed.' From my expe- 
rience among the miiaers in England, I may say that they 
are really better cared for than are the coal-miners in the 
United States." 

Let us make one further comparison on this question 
of wages. 

Between the different States of the Union there is 
absolute free trade; yet under it there has not been 
the least difficulty in each State developing its own 



332 SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 

industries. Why, in the South, after the terrible 
prostration of the war, and with all the poverty that 
came with it, there was a development of her indus- 
tries to a greater extent than was ever known in a 
like period of our history in any section of the country; 
and this was accomplished notwithstanding the fierce 
competition of established industries in other States 
that had many advantages over her. 

Now, often between the different States in this Union 
there is a greater difference in wages than between the 
United States and England. Let me give you a few 
facts to show this, taken from the census of 1880. 

Taking the total amount paid for wages in the manu- 
facturing industries, and dividing it by the number 
engaged in those industries, we find that the annual 
averaii'e wage earnings in the State of Maine in her 
manufacturing industries was -1200, while in Massa- 
chusetts it was $364 ; in Connecticut, $385 ; in Cali- 
fornia, $483 ; in Oregon, $501. But in Georgia it was 
$211; in North Carolina, $155; in Tennessee, $234; in 
Pennsylvania, $349. And so I might q:o through the 
list, showing a vast difference in the wages paid in 
different States. 

Have I shown you facts enough to prove that the 
tariff does not increase wages ? 

But you ask me, are not wages higher here than in 
England ? Yes, measured in dollars, wages are higher ; 
but measured in work, they are not higher. The 
reason labor is paid more in the United States is 
because it earns more. I do not believe that a single 
dollar is paid to our labor in comparison with the labor 
of any other country that is not fully earned by the 
work it does. But the Republicans insist that labor 
here, as compared with labor abroad, is paid more than 
it earns by its work. Let us see what the facts are. 



SPEECH AT FALL RIVEE. 833 

I will take the cotton industry, in which many of 
you are interested. In his report made to the State 
Department in August, 1886, after a very careful ex- 
amination, Consul Schoenhof made a comparison of the 
cost of labor in manufacturing certain yarns at Fall 
River and in Lancashire, England, and he found that 
the labor cost in making their yarn No. 18 was in 
Lancashire 52 cents, and in Massachusetts only 40 
cents ; No. 20 was in Lancashire 50 cents, and in Mas- 
sachusetts 45 cents ; No. 28 was in Lancashire 61 cents, 
and in Massachusetts 64 cents. And so on through the 
list, in almost every instance the labor cost being less 
in Fall River than in England. 

Mr. Schoenhof reports that a weaver in America tends 
from six to eight looms, in England from three to four ; 
that the number of yards a weaver turns out in America 
is 1350, and in England 857 ; that the number of yards 
of woollen dress-goods a weaver turns out in America 
is 300, and in England 105, and of cheviot cloth in 
America 120, and in England 80. I could show you 
that the same fact is true in other industries, for ex- 
ample carpets and boots and shoes; invariably our 
employees do more work, and so get more wages. 

Mr. Schoenhof, in his official report, declares that 
in the cotton industry each weaver in America tends 
more looms and turns out more yards of cloth than in 
England, and that each s])inner tends more spindles; 
so that the labor cost per 100 yards of print cloth in 
Fall River was 40 cents, and in Lancashire 51. These 
figures were confirmed by figures which were sent me 
in 1888 from one of our large cotton-mills. The letter 
accompanying them said : " They were collected by one 
of the best superintendents of one of the largest cotton- 
mills this year in England, for use, if possible, in this 
campaign. But they were not used, because they show 



334 SPEECH AT FALL EIVER. 

that the labor cost in England, measured by work, was 
higher than here." 

They are as follows : — 

TABLE ON WEAVING AND SPTNTS^NG. 
(Weaving about one-half tlie expense of the cloth.) 

Paid weavers England, 

in England, In U. S. higher 
per cut. per cut. per cent. 

64 square (print cloth) S0.26 $0 20 30 

Argyle 0.27 0.20 25 

Boott A. L 0.35 0.27 29^ 

Standard sheeting (China trade, etc.) . 0.21 0.16^ 27 

SPINNING. 

Per 
Spindles. A week. spindle. 

England, pay for tending .... 646 18j-. .0275.f. 

United States, pay for tending . 1,120 19^^. .0174J-. 

Or 57 per cent higher per spindle in England. 

I have, too, in my hand an autograph letter from the 
president of the American Screw Company, giving in 
detail facts and figures to show that in his industry the 
labor cost of his product here is less than abroad, 
especially in wire drawing. He says also, in the 
Armington and Sims Engine Company, they employ 
here one man and two boys to do a certain class of 
work, while in England are employed five skilled 
workmen to do the same thing; and he gives further 
evidence to the same effect. Mr. Sargent, the great 
hardware manufacturer of Connecticut, gives evidence 
of a like nature, and shows that our labor, measured 
by the work it does, is the cheapest labor in the 
world, and that its high wages come from its great 
producing power. 

Mr. Blaine, in 1881, in his report as Secretary of 
State, said: "The hours of labor in the Lancashire 
mills are 56, and in the Massachusetts 60 per week. 
The hours of labor in the mills in the other New 
England States, where the wages are generally less 
than in Massachusetts, are usually 66 to 69 per week. 



SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 335 

Undoubtedly the inequalities in the tvages of English 
and American operatives are more than equalized by the 
greater efficiency of the latter and their longer hours of 
labor. " 

Mr. Evarts, Secretary of State in 1878, in his report 
on the "State of Labor in Europe," made May 17 
of that year, said : " Tlie average American workman 
performs from one and a half to twice as much in a 
given time as the average European workman. This is 
so important a point in connection with our ability to 
com])ete with the cheap labor manufacturers of Europe, 
and it seems at first thought so strange, that I will 
trouble you with somewhat lengthy quotations from the 
reports in support thereof ; " which quotations he pro- 
ceeded to give. 

That is the reason why we are able to s-^nd abroad 
and sell in competition with the whole world many 
articles in which labor is the principal item of cost, and 
the raw material is the least, — such articles as hard- 
ware goods, cutlery, machinery, watches, and furniture. 
We never could do it for a minute if it was not that 
our labor is more efficient than the foreign labor, and, 
though paid more in dollars, earns every cent that is 
paid to it. 

We pay higher wages because our men earn more. 
Let me confirm this statement by Republican authority. 
Islv. Charles S. Hill, the statistician of the State Depart- 
ment, in his argument before the Tariff Commission, 
j)ointed out the fact that our manufactured product in 
1882 was 88,000,000,000, made by 5,250,000 hands, 
and that for the same time the product of England was 
'14,000,000,000, made by 5,140,200 hands; and then he 
says: "Here is the positive proof that American 
mechanics, in the aggregate, accomplish exactly double 
the result of the same number of British mechanics. 
They are, therefore, very justly paid double in wages." 



336 SPEECH AT FALL RIVER. 

The Rcpnl)licans say they need this high-tariff tax- 
ation because our wages are so high. I have shown you 
that this is not true ; but, even if it were true, let us 
see how high a tariff tax would be necessary to pay the 
whole of the wages in our great industries. 

In a report of the Bureau of Statistics, made Jan. 25, 
1888, it is stated that the wages paid in the cotton in- 
dustry are a little over 21 per cent of the cost of the 
product, and that the protective tariff is over 40 per 
cent, or more than double the whole labor cost in that 
industry. So, in iron and steel manufactures, the labor 
cost is a little over 18 per cent, and the tariff tax more 
than 40 per cent. In silk goods the labor cost is a 
little over 22 per cent, and the tariff' tax over 50 per 
cent. In woollen goods the labor cost is about 17 per 
cent, and the tariff tax over 60 per cent. 

Take as further evidence the report of our Labor 
Bureau in Massachusetts in 1885, which shows that 
while the wages here are higher than the average wages 
of the country, still they are not in these industries 
equal to one half the tariff tax that is put upon their 
products. 

The tariff tax, the Republicans claim, is to equalize 
the difference between wages here and in England ; 
but as it is more than double the whole wages paid in 
an industry, and many times more than any such dif- 
ference, this claim is as absurd as their assertion that 
the tariff dctei-mines wages. 

What, tlien, does determine wages ? Demand and 
supply and the efficiency of labor. Labor is about the 
only thing in which there exists to-day free-trade. 
The manufacturer gets protection for his goods, and 
free-trade for his labor. 

But these taxes, which permit him to burden every 
home in the land, are made in the name of labor by a 



SPEECH AT FALL KIVER. 337 

party that never has any interest in labor until, on 
the eve of election, it tries to deceive it and to get 
its vote. 

The truth is that these tariff taxes arc all put on in 
the name of labor, but labor does not get them. Yon 
have heard of the cost of many of the necessaries of 
life increasing within the last few days since the McKin- 
ley Bill was passed, but you have not heard of any 
manufacturer here in Massachusetts suggesting an 
increase in the wages of his workmen. The protected 
industries are getting more by taxing the American 
people in the name of labor ; but, I repeat, labor does^ 
not get it. It is not labor that has made this unjust 
McKinlcy Bill, but it is wealth and selfish interests, 
that, controlling the Republican party, have determined, 
to add to their millions the taxes which they wring out 
of all the people. 

It is wealth and monopoly and trusts that are getting 
the benefit of these high-tariff taxes ; and behind many of 
these taxes that are burdening the people and hurting, 
instead of helping, the industries, you will find some 
selfish millionnaire extorting money by abuse of the 
people's law. That is why the Democracy fights this 
high and oppressive tariff. Never was it truer to its 
mission of serving the people's cause and fighting the 
people's battle than when it stands fighting organized 
wealth, and demanding that it shall not control the 
law of this country ; when it stands, as it does, for 
the rights of the people against the privileges of the 
few, and demanding that unnecessary burdens shall not 
be laid upon them, but that all shall stand equal before 
the law. 

22 



SPEECH 

AT GARDNER, MASS., OCT. 28, 1890, UPON THE TARIFF 
IN ITS RELATION TO THE FARMING INDUSTRY. 

T WISH to-night to touch upon a phase of the tariff 
-^ question about which I have not yet spoken, — its 
effect upon the farmers. Here in Gardner, and all about 
this section of the country, are many farmers who arc 
thinking seriously of the tariff, now that the tariff is 
beginning to touch their pockets. They feel its bur- 
dens, and are asking what benefits they get as compen- 
sation. Finding none, they ask if the time has not 
come to break away from the Republican party that is 
inflicting on them taxes to their injury. 

Now, the Republicans say that they make a home 
market for agricultural products by their tariff policy, 
that they indirectly give a benefit to agriculture by 
building up communities for farmers to feed. 

But their tariff taxes now, instead of building up 
industries and communities, are, many of them, killing 
our industries and driving them out of the State, as in 
the case of the glass and iron and their dependent 
industries. Surely, that is no benefit to any one, at 
least here in Massachusetts. 

But, in the next place, this cry of the Republicans is 
only another false pretence to get the farmer to submit 
quietly to the Inirden upon him, just as they say to 
labor — which always bears the heaviest burden of tax- 
ation — that the tariff is imposed for labor's benefit, 
because it will give benefits to the manufacturer, and 



SPEECH AT GARDNER. 339 

then trusts to his charity to distribute them in wages, — 
which, by the way, he never does. 

But let us state the account between the farmer 
and the tariff, and see how he comes out; what bur- 
dens and benefits he gets from it. In any scheme of 
taxation the interest of the farmer ought to be most 
carefully considered. Nearly one-half of the people 
in this country who are engaged in gainful occupa- 
tions are farmers; far more are so engaged than in 
manufactures. 

Now, the tariff taxes about four thousand articles of 
consumption in this country. I do not jiropose to give 
you a list, but I will show you some of the duties on 
articles which farmers must buy. There is a tax on 
earthen pipe, 25 cents on every dollar's worth ; on lin- 
seed-oil, 15 cents; on wall-paper, 25 cents; on lime, 
35 cents; on screws, 50 cents; on window-glass, f|l,lo; 
on slate, 25 cents ; on nails, spikes, and tacks, 52 cents ; 
on white lead, 58 cents ; on cheapest crockery, 55 cents 
to 65 cents ; on glass ware, 45 cents to 55 cents ; on oil- 
cloth, 54 cents; on woollen blankets, -fl.lO; on woollen 
clothing, 84 cents ; on hats, 81 cents ; on cotton thread, 
50 cents; on buttons, 25 cents, and ivory and bone 
buttons, 50 cents. And so I might go on showing you 
taxes on almost every article that enters into the con- 
struction and furnishing of your houses and barns, and 
upon your clothing and your food. 

Now, most of these taxes raise the cost of the articles 
taxed, whether brought here from abroad or made here, 
— not always to the amount of the tax, but still to a 
large amount. 

You know from your experience that the recent law, 
which raises tariff taxes 5 or 10 per cent, has raised the 
cost of many of the most common necessaries of life. 
If 5 or 10 per cent raises prices, as you know it does. 



340 SPEECH AT GARDNER. 

what do you suppose is the effect of tariff taxes of 50 or 
60 per ceut, which is the average amount to-day of tariff 
taxation ? 

So, too, there are tariff' taxes on agricultural imple- 
ments of 45 cents on the dollar of their value ; and yet 
we are sending abroad machinery and agricultural 
implements made here, and selling them to the for- 
eigner for less than they are sold to our own people. 
I produced the other evening the evidence of one of 
the largest manufacturers of agricultural implements, 
and of manufacturers of saws and cutlery and many 
other articles, all admitting that they were selling 
their products cheaper abroad than they were selling 
them to our own people. Here then is a burden put 
upon the farmer absolutely without excuse, which 
exacts from him tribute in taxes without necessity, 
and which makes it more expensive for him to run his 
farm, and compete with the foreigner in the sale of 
his products. 

Now, let us take the other side of the account, and 
see what benefit the farmer gets. Is his grain or pota- 
toes or any farm produce raised in price by this taxa- 
tion? The Republicans say it is, and declare that they 
give him a home market by establishing industries. 

Well, there is no better place in which to test this 
home-market idea than Massachusetts and New Eng- 
land. Our State is one of the largest manufacturing 
States in the Nation. It has more large cities and 
towns in proportion to its population than any other 
State. Certainly here we ought to find agriculture 
growing, if the Republican argument is sound. Let us 
see what the facts are. From 1875 to 1885 there was 
a loss of nearly $6,000,000 in the value of farm lands 
in Massachusetts, — though, no doubt, much of this loss 
is due to a different standard of value ; but we ought to 



SPEECH AT GARDNER. 341 

have seen, with a high tariff, an enormous growth in 
the value of farm-lands. 

Next take farm produce. From 1865 to 1885, the 
amount of beef produced in Massachusetts declined 
from 70,000,000 pounds to 10,000,000 pounds. Only 
one-tenth as much cheese was produced in 1885 as 
in Jl865. The production of potatoes decreased from 
4,767,000 bushels in 1845 to 3,584,000 bushels in 
1885. Our wool product in the same time decreased 
from 1,015,000 pounds to 225,000 pounds. Yet during 
this whole period industries and manufactures were 
developing and growing in Massachusetts. The pro- 
duction also of barley, of buckwheat, of Indian corn, 
oats, rye, wheat, and hay has declined in 1885 as 
compared with 1850. So, too, with the number of 
working oxen and sheep and swine. Meanwhile the 
value of grains, meats, cattle, and other farm products 
has also declined. There was also from 1875 to 1885 a 
decrease in Massachusetts of the land under cultivation 
and in the value of farm lands per acre. 

As a single but a striking piece of evidence that 
the farming communities in Massachusetts are becom- 
ing poorer, notice the report of the Home Missionary 
Society for June, 1888, which says that " in the 
western counties of Massachusetts the number of 
churches aided, not including mission churches in 
cities and large towns, has increased from 10 in 1860 
to 32 in 1888." 

Taking population as a test, what do we find ? 
That since the war, up to 1885, the smaller towns 
of the State have lost 140,000 in their population, 
whil6 the whole State has gained 18 per cent. 

I know that Senator Hoar says that this is in the 
hillside towns, and is because the farmers on the 
hilltops have at last got over their fear of attacks from 



342 SPEECH AT GARDNER. 

the Indians, and are beginning- to slide down into the 
valleys; but the trouble with this explanation is that 
the farmers are not only sliding from the hilltops, but 
also out of the valleys. 

Nor is this decline in the condition of our farmers 
confined to Massachusetts onlv. We know that in 
New Hampshire and Vermont there have recently been 
appointed those ill-omened officers known as commis- 
sioners of abandoned farms, appointed by the State to 
see what can be done to dispose of such farms. 

The commissioner of New Hampshire advertises 
1,442 abandoned farms in that State. He says, "Many 
of these farms can be purchased for less than what it 
would cost to replace the buildings, and for one-fifth 
of the cost of the permanent improvements upon them." 
Our poet Whittier has noticed this decline and been 
touched by it. In his pathetic letter to Judge Nott 
of Dec. 1, 1889, he says: "I thank thee for thy 
noble testimony in regard to the sad decline of New 
England agriculture. Every year when I go to the 
New Hampshire hill country I find more and more 
abandoned farms; and the sight takes away much of 
the pleasure of a sojourn in view of the mountains. " 

A like condition exists in Connecticut. The recent 
census shows that, taking the groups of towns described 
as agricultural, about her twelve manufacturing cities, 
there has been an actual decrease of population in them 
from 1880 to 1890. Evidently the farmers in New Eng- 
land have not been enjoying much benefit from the home 
market. And why not ? 

Well, the Republicans will say it is because of 
Western competition. Now, that is an impoVtant 
reason ; but how do they explain the fact that in 
the West there is like distress in the condition of the 
farmer ? And all over the countrv the wealth of the 



SPEECH AT GARDNER. 343 

agricultural community does not begin to grow as does 
that of the manufacturing interests. 

From 1850 to 1860, under our lowest tariff, the value 
of farms and property increased from $4,000,000,000 
to nearly 18,000,000,000, — an increase, on the average, 
of $337,000,000 a year, or 10 per cent. 

From 1860 to 1880 the increase averaged only 
$177,000,000, or 2} per cent. From 1870 to 1880 the 
increase was less than $1,000,000,000; and meanwhile 
the other half of our people, not farmers, from 1860 to 
1880, increased their wealth nearly $23,000,000,000. 
In the six New England States the value of farms and 
farm property from 1870 to 1880 actually declined 
nearly $36,000,000, — though, no doubt, this in part is 
due to a different standard of money. 

It is also true that there has been a decline in the 
value of such staples as corn, wheat, oats, and grain 
since we have had a high tariff. From 1850 to 1860 
the price of corn averaged 72 cents a bushel, and of 
wheat, $1.36 per bushel. A recent bulletin of the 
Agricultural Department says that the present average 
value of corn is 29.1 cents, and of wheat 70.6 cents, 
and of oats 23.23 cents; though I believe since that 
bulletin was issued these prices have somewhat in- 
creased. It is a notorious fact that the price of corn 
has declined so in recent years that the Western far- 
mers have actually used it for fuel. 

The reason why farmers all over the country are 
suffering is, I think, a plain and simple one. By the 
Eepublican tariff policy, all that they buy is raised in 
price; but the price of most that they sell is fixed in 
competition with the labor of the world, and is not 
raised by tariff taxes. The price of farm products in 
New England, no doubt, is lowered by "Western com- 
petition; but the price of Western products is fixed by 



344 SPEECH AT GARDNER. 

the price they sell for in England in competition with 
the world. Our farms produce much more than our 
people consume, and the surplus must find a market 
abroad. Unless it did this, there would l)e a glut of 
the market here, and a still further lowering of prices. 
So each year we export enormous quantities of grains 
and hreadstuffs, — last year nearly 70,000,000 bushels 
of corn, 46,000,000 bushels of wheat, nearly 10,000,000 
barrels of flour, over 15,000,000 pounds of butter, — and 
great quantities of meats, cheese, tobacco, hops, etc. 

Under the Republican tariff policy, which discour- 
ages foreign trade and looks upon commerce as a sin, 
our exports of these articles have been declining, while 
the exports of the same articles from India and other 
nations have increased. Our exports of breadstuffs de- 
clined from 1880 to 1889 to the extent of 1165,000,000 ; 
of wheat, from 144,000,000 bushels to 46,000,000 
bushels. In 1880 we furnished 69 per cent of all the 
foreign wheat consumed in European markets, and in 
1889 but a little over 20 per cent. What is to become 
of the farmer of the West if the amount of his product 
is constantly increasing, but the foreign market for it 
constantly diminishing ? 

And if the farmer of the West suffers from this, in 
Heaven's name what is to become of the small farmer 
of New England, who suffers also from the Western 
competition ? 

Mr. Blaine appreciated this difficulty when he said 
that our great need was to extend our trade and get 
additional foreign markets, and showed that he was 
perfectly well aware of the enormous burden of this 
McKinley Tariff Bill on the farmer, and of the injury 
it inflicted on the whole country, when he said there 
was not a line or section in it which opened up a 
market for another bushel of wheat or barrel of pork. 



SPEECH AT GARDNER. 345 

Now let us see, with this well-known burden of the 
tariff on the farmer, and his present depressed condition, 
what the McKinley Bill does for him? 

It gives him only a mock protection. For instance, 
it doubles the protective tariff duties on beef and pork, 
though we export about $100,000,000 worth of these 
articles, and import only about ifSOOjOOO worth. What 
possible good can the farmer get by a tariff' on such 
articles under these circumstances ? 

It raises the tariff' duties on butter and cheese, 
though we export 12 times as much cheese as we 
import, and 350 times as much butter as we import. 
It raises the tariff protection on wheat, though last year 
we exported 46,000,000 bushels, and imported less than 
2,000 bushels; on corn, though last year we exported 
over 69,000,000 bushels, and imported a little over 
2,000; on rye the tariff tax is left at 10 cents, though 
we exported 287,000 bushels, and imported 16 bushels. 

Does any farmer believe that a high-tariff tax on these 
16 bushels will affect the price of rye in this country ? 

So, too, we find a tariff" tax on tallow, though we 
export nearly 80,000,000 pounds; on lard, though we 
export 318,000,000 pounds, and import 1,700 pounds. 
On flour they have raised the tariff tax, though we ex- 
ported nearly 10,000,000 barrels, and imported 1,155. 

And so I might go through the whole list. I say, 
without fear of contradiction, that such tariff taxes are 
the merest absurdity, and are a humbug and a mockery 
to the farmer for the purpose of deceiving him into a 
patient assent to his tariff burdens. 

It is true, there are some articles of which we import 
larger quantities on which the Republicans have raised 
the tariff. For instance, they have put a duty of five 
cents a dozen on eggs, and the amount of eggs imported 
is 1 to every 100 used in this country. So, too, with 



346 SPEECH AT GxVKDNEK. 

potatoes, though we exported last year nearly 500,000 
bushels, and almost as many as we imported. The 
tariff has been raised on these, though it is well known 
that the potatoes imported come at such a season and 
fill such a demand that they practically are not in 
competition with our home product. 

No wonder, my friends, with tariff taxes bearing so 
heavily on the farmer, and little or nothing given him 
in return, we hear a cry of distress from him all over 
the country. We hear of a large increase through the 
whole West in the number and amount of mortgages on 
Western farms. Senator Hoar thinks that this is 
evidence of the prosperity of the farming class, — on 
the principle, I suppose, of the fellow who said he man- 
aged to live on his debts. No wonder the Farmers' 
Alliances are everywhere protesting against a high 
tariff. Here is a resolution adopted by a Farmers' 
Alliance in Indiana. It reads : — 

"That the bill now before the United States Senate, 
which by its provisions increases tariff taxation, meets with 
our earnest protest. We scorn the increase of the tariff on 
agricultural products as a bit of hypocritical, vote-catching 
claptrap, well knowing that no amount of alleged protection 
on agricultural products, by any possibility, could have any 
effect on the price of the same as long as the home supply is 
greater than the demand." 

Most properly, the President of the Farmers' Alli- 
ance enters his protest, too, in this indignant language. 
Speaking of the distress of the farmers, to the very 
committee that framed the bill, he said : — 

"We protest, and with all reverence, that it is not God's 
fault ; we protest that it is not the farmers' fault. We 
believe and so charge, solemnly and deliberately, that it is 



SPEECH AT GARDNER. 347 

the fault of tlie financial system of the government, — a 
system that has 23laced on agriculture an undue, unjust, and 
intolerable proportion of the burdens of taxation." 

I have shown you, first, that the burden of the tariff 
increases the cost of living, and falls heavily on the 
farming community, who are nearly one-half the people 
of the country. Second, that under a high-tariff policy 
the value of farms in New England and the United States 
has either actually decreased or not increased as much 
as under a low tariff. Third, that the value of farm 
products has declined. Fourth, that the selling price 
of those products is fixed in competition with the world, 
but that the farmers' purchases are raised by tariff' 
taxation. To him the tariff is all outgo, and no in- 
come. Fifth, that the farming towns in Massachusetts 
and New England are growing poor and losing their 
population. Sixth, that throughout the West there is 
also suffering in this industry. Seventh, that what the 
farmers need more than anything are more markets 
abroad to prevent the home market from being glutted 
by over-production. Eighth, that this McKinley Bill 
absolutely fails to give them relief, but deliberately, 
defiantly increases the burdens on the farmer in his 
purchases. 

I want to ask any farmer, with such facts staring 
him in the face, how he can on his conscience or for 
his interest give his vote to support the Republican 
party which has enacted such a policy, and done it, not 
for the good of the whole country or its industries, but 
because it is under the control of selfish interests that 
through it are determined to make money out of the 
people's law, and to force the people to contribute by 
taxation their dollars to roll up enormous fortunes for 
the few. 



SPEECH 

AT THE TARIFF REFORM LEAGUE DINNER, NEW 
YORK, DEC. 23, 1890.1 

TT is a great pleasure to come to this gathering of 
-*- patriotic and public-spirited men, and to rejoice 
with them in tlie success of principles for which they 
have gallantly fought through defeat to a great and 
deserved victory. It adds to my pleasure that I can bring 
to you the greeting and the sympathy of old Massachu- 
setts and of all N.ew England, except two States still 
in darkness, and perhaps one other which the expe- 
rienced hand of an unscrupulous politician is trying 
to keep from the light. 

New England has once more rebelled against unjust 
and unequal taxation. In her colonial days she uttered 
her first brave protest. In my own city it was ordered 
"to be recorded in the town books that the children yet 
unborn may see the desire that their ancestors had for 
their freedom and happiness ; " and again it was there 
recorded, "We can no longer stand idle spectators," 
but will aid in anv measure "to deliver ourselves and 
posterity from slavery." With the same spirit, and for 
the same purpose. New England has now severed old 
political ties to give emphasis again to her protest, and 
to declare to the country that she can no longer stand 
an idle spectator, but has buckled on her armor to 
deliver ourselves and posterity from the slavery of 
selfish control by selfish interests of the people's law. 

1 This speech was made to the toa.«t : " The place of New England in 
the contest: once nioro she rehe]s against unjust ami unequal taxation." 



SPEECH IN NEW YORK. 349 

The issue was squarely made and fought out on the 
tariff question and the principles it necessarily in- 
volves. In Massachusetts, at least, no other question 
had sufficient weiirht to affect materiallv the result. 
That result was her deliberate conviction in favor of 
tariff reform upon the lines of making free the raw 
materials of industries, and cheapening — yes, clieap^ 
ening — the cost of the necessaries of life, 

I know that Senator Hoar has proclaimed in effect 
that the result was an accident due to misunderstanding 
and misrepresentation. If so, it was a misunderstand- 
ing of his arguments and misrepresentation that he was 
unable to refute. His explanations, opinions, and 
threats are by us taken with a liberal discount, as those 
of an honest man, no doubt, but one whose head requires 
a surgical operation to get into it public sentiment on 
the questions of the day, and out of it prejudices of 
thirty years ago. To himself and his policy might well 
be applied the remark of the wanderer in the old grave- 
yard, who, finding on a moss-covered stone the words, 
"I still live," exclaimed, "Well, be jabbers, if I was 
dead I 'd acknowledge it." 

No greater mistake can be made than to suppose the 
victory in Massachusetts was accidental, or personal to 
any man. It Avas her mature judgment upon the tariff 
after most thorough consideration. For three years the 
campaign of education had gone on with energy and 
ever-increasing confidence. It had for its primer and 
its bible the sound message of a brave President, who 
made the Nation listen, told it the truth, and mar- 
shalled its conscience to assert that justice, equality, 
and freedom should be with us, as with the fathers, the 
basis of all law. From 1887 on, through the public 
Press and public meetings, debates in Congress and 
our Legislature, in campaigns, and throughout the 



350 SPEECH IX NEW YORK. 

year, tariff reform was the one supreme subject of 
political thought and discussion. 

Every opportunity was given the people to become 
informed of the facts and principles necessary for an 
intelligent opinion, and of the history, burdens, and 
benefits of a high tariff. Finally, the fatuity of our 
opponents gave the people a practical but exjiensive 
illustration of the whole system in its full development. 
Tariff reform with us at once made converts. It con- 
vinced the wage-earner that high-tariff taxation was to 
him a burden without adequate return. It awoke the 
farmer to the fact that to him such taxation was all 
outo-o and no income ; and even the manufacturer began 
to see that protection could take the life of an industry. 
With this, too, came a wholesome fear that an aroused 
public sentiment, unless satisfied and controlled by 
conservative concessions, might sweep away the whole 
system to get rid of its injustice and its burdens. 

Two great influences controlled the action of Massa- 
chusetts on this question: first, her material interests; 
and, second, her moral sense of right and wrong. She 
remembered that under a low tariff her great industries 
were established and her manufacturing towns were 
founded ; that in 1857 she, with the rest of New Eng- 
land, was in favor of the lowest tariff our country has 
had for generations; she recalled that in those davs 
her agriculture thrived, her industries progressed by 
leaps and bounds, her commerce carried our flag into 
every part of the civilized world, and the New England 
coast rang with the music of anvil and of mallet, build- 
ing the clipper ships that should win the carrying trade 
of the world. 

Then she lived through thirty years of stringent 
protection. And sitting down at last to examine her 
condition after such careful "nursing," she found her 



SPEECH IN NEW YORK. 351 



agriculture declining, and new and ill-omened officers, 
commissioners of abandoned farms, created in some of 
the New England States. Her foreign commerce had 
been swept from the seas. Great industries, that for 
generations had been her glory and her strength, were 
folding " their tents, like the Arabs, and silently steal- 
ing awa}'. " Others were stagnant, others greatly pros- 
perous ; and the line of cleavage between stagnation and 
prosperity seemed to be free raw material. She felt 
the great and growing competition of the West and the 
South, with their natural advantages secured to them, 
while her own were destroyed by a policy which set 
aside a law of Nature and the will of God. Massa- 
chusetts, with her inherited aptitude for skilled indus- 
tries, will take her chance in any fair competition. 
She does object to competing with her hands tied ; 
she protests against law holding the knife that would 
cut the throat of her great industries. 

But I love to think that a higher influence than her 
pocket controlled her action. I know that wrong 
which touches the pocket pricks the conscience. I also 
know that Massachusetts, God bless her! against her 
material interests, has been the fruitful field of manv 
an agitation for human rights, equality, and freedom, 
meant to be the forerunner of law, and successful in 
their purpose. If the spirit of the olden time was still 
in her, it was inevitable that she, true to her history 
and her traditions, again should protest against unequal 
and unjust taxation. I rejoice that to make her protest 
she must walk in the pleasant paths of Democracy. 
Never was Democracy truer to its mission than when 
it made tariff reform the supreme question of the day. 
If Democracy means the rights of the many against the 
privileges of the few, the equality of all before the 
law, the freedom of the individual from unnecessarv 



352 SPEECH IN NEW YOKK. 

burdens and restrictions ; if it really stands between the 
people and oppressive power, and beside the humblest 
individual to protect him in making the most of him- 
self, — then it was bound to fight taxation that was en- 
riching the few at the expense of the many, and under 
the control of selfish interests was being used for sel- 
fish purposes. I believe the victory of November was 
meant to be something more than the settlement of an 
economic question. I construe it to be the demand of 
the people that these principles shall control the policy 
and laws of the Nation. 

So will there be a just and honest settlement of the 
tariff, not by compromises and log-rolling, not by stir- 
ring up antagonism of conflicting interests, but by 
applying to it sound Democratic principles, which define 
the proper power of government, and secure the rights 
of the people. Then, too, will they restore govern- 
ment to the purposes of its founders, and make equality, 
freedom, and economy its guiding principles, as they 
are the foundations of free and democratic institutions. 
This is the real significance and value of the victories 
in New England. They are not the mere assertion of 
a local position on an economic question. They are her 
pledge of loyalty to these principles vital to the welfare 
and happy union of all our people. Iler political 
conversion, deliberate and well grounded, is not a 
fickle change of heart from which she may slip back 
to her old life, but a brave confession of her faith and 
her determined purpose, as long as Democracy shall 
keep that faith, to follow in its footsteps. Thus under- 
stood, it cannot but have an influence far beyond her 
borders. It shows that Democracy need have no fear 
of resolute leadership or of a fight for principle. It is 
New England's tribute to such leadership in the past ; it 
is her trumpet-call for such leadership in the future. 



SPEECH 

AT THE DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION, WORCES- 
TER, SEPT. 29, 1891, UPON STATE ISSUES. 

T AM deeply grateful for the honor conferred upon me 
-*- by this Convention, representing a great political 
party, in whose principles I firmly believe. 

Your renewed confidence in me is the more welcome 
because it is the indorsement of an administration 
which to the utmost of my ability and strength has 
tried to serve the people's interest and to promote the 
welfare of our beloved Commonwealth. 1 rejoice that 
at last the time has come when I am free to go before 
the public, who have confided to me an honorable and 
responsible trust, and to give an account to them of my 
stewardship. 

I should have been glad if, in this aggressive ca.m- 
paign, this accounting to the people could have been 
made face to face with a valiant and responsible 
opponent. T cannot but believe that the plan of 
Lincoln and Douglass, of Campbell and McKinley, 
would have been a braver, fairer, truer contest on the 
real issues of the campaign than the irresponsible 
tactics of guerilla warfare. 

However much politicians or platforms may seek to 
divert the public mind from the issues, the common- 
sense and honesty of our people can always be trusted 
to consider and determine the real merits of a cam- 
paign. There is, too, an intelligence and indepen- 
dence here which can decide each election on its own 

23 



354 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1891. 

merits, and will not undertake in a State election of 
1891 to settle a presidential election of 1892. While, 
no doubt, every State election involves National as well 
as State questions, and we gladly welcome the discus- 
sion of both, I believe that, under the frequent elections 
enjoined upon us by law, when a servant of the people 
comes before them for their indorsement, the question 
they deem most important is : Has he in the matters 
confided to his charge been honest, faithful, just, and 
patriotic ? 

I am confirmed in this belief by the oft-repeated 
question put to me in the past, What has the election 
of a Democratic Governor to do with the tariff ques- 
tion ? To the test suggested I gladly submit the 
administration of the year, and to it I challenge the 
attention and criticism of our opponents. It is some- 
thing in favor of the administration that a party which 
has often declared that State affairs only were involved 
in the election of State oflficers, which has followed it 
with keenest scrutiny and minute attack throughout the 
year, which has loudly proclaimed the need of what that 
party calls "the redemption of Massachusetts," yet, 
when it meets in solemn convention, in the responsible 
utterance of its platform, can find no word of objection 
or criticism upon that administration, and forthwith 
proclaims its policy to settle State affairs on National 
lines, and the election of 1892 in the fall of 1891. And 
then it leaves the duty of finding some kind of criti- 
cism, however specious or petty, to one whose only 
connection with State affairs during the year has been 
in the lobbies of the State House, trying to defeat the 
declared purpose of the Legislature, and to set aside the 
report of a Republican committee in favor of a fair and 
honest redistricting of the State, that he may substitute 
therefor his own purpose to have an unfair and dishon- 



DEMOCKATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1891. 355 

est gerrymander of the State for his own personal and 
partisan ends. 

Four grounds of criticism this gentleman has dis- 
covered. First, two appointments made by me, he is 
informed, were bad. But he carefully omits to specify 
even the two. Will he now kindly specify them ? 
What has he to say of the hundreds of other appoint- 
ments made ? 

In the selection of judges, of new officers created by 
the Legislature, and of other important officials, there 
has been placed a responsibility upon the Governor 
greater than for many years. How has that responsi- 
bility been met ? Is the proper test two possible mis- 
takes, or hundreds of appointments confessedly good ? 
Is it the one or the one hundred instances that mark 
the policy of an administration and give to it a charac- 
ter that explains and redeems a possible mistake ? 

I say without fear of contradiction that there never 
has been a Republican administration in the Nation, 
or in any of her States, that has made such a practical 
and thorough application of the spirit and purpose of 
civil service reform as this Democratic administration 
in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ; and this not- 
withstanding the fact that the precedents before me 
were a State administration with nearly every lucrative 
office filled by a Republican, and a National administra- 
tion which, in violation of its own and its party's 
plighted words, had removed thousands and tens of 
thousands of Democrats for politics only, and, against 
the nearly unanimous protest of our whole people, had 
defiantly proclaimed that an honest, efficient Democrat, 
because he was a Democrat, was not fit to be postmaster 
of the city of Boston. 

Second, my critic complains of two vetoes made by 
me. It is enough at present to say that both vetoes 



356 DEMOCliATIC CONVENTION, WORCEiSTER, 1891. 

were unanimously sustained in a Senate evenl}^ divided 
politically. 

Third, he criticises the failure to reappoint a rail- 
road commissioner, but of course neglects to say that 
scores of other Republican officials have been 
reappointed. 

Reserving for another time a full discussion of this 
criticism, let me say now that when Massachusetts 
places so much of her administration in the hands of 
commissions which are beyond the control of the people, 
and to that extent irresponsible, and one of those com- 
missions pointedly, defiantly, opposes the will of the 
people's Legislature twice expressed, and refuses to 
do its plain duty till compelled to by the peremptory 
and unanimous order of the Supreme Court, — I say that 
in my judgment the time has come when the people, 
exercising through their Governor the only power left 
to them over such a commission, should declare that at 
least he shall not reappoint a commissioner guilty of 
such an offence. 

Fourth, my critic says that, though opposed to com- 
missions, and having an opportunity to show his oppo- 
sition, "yet this enemy of commissions has appointed 
not less than five, — rapid transit, World's Columbian 
Exposition, uniformity of legislation, manual industrial 
training, and Charles River improvement;" and he 
denounces my inconsistency. 

He knows that my objection to commissions, as 
repeatedly expressed, was to those "whose work is 
wholly executive," and which make part of the State's 
"system of administrative and executive work." He 
knows that the commissions mentioned are for a differ- 
ent purpose ; that they have nothing to do with State 
administration; that they are all for temporary objects; 
and that, with one exception, the service is entirely gra- 



DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1891. 357 

tuitous. He knows that every one of them was created 
by an Act of the Legislature nearly, if not quite, 
unanimously passed, which compelled me to make the 
appointments, and my only power to object to them was 
to veto the Act of their creation. 

Which one would he have had me veto ? The one 
which is to plan and provide a proper exhibit for the 
World's Fair ? Or the one which is to investigate the 
crying demand and need of our people for better tran- 
sit facilities ? Or the one which, in conference with 
other States, is to consider the question of uniform 
legislation on matters of marriage, divorce, etc.? Or 
the one which is to investigate the subject of manual 
training, in the hope of advancing the cause of labor and 
increasing the influence and value of our public schools ? 
Or the one which is to investigate how best the Charles 
River basin can be improved for the benefit of all our 
people ? 

For such criticism from a party's apparent leader, 
which magnifies little things, purposely withholds 
necessary facts, and knowingly distorts an opponent's 
position, I am profoundly grateful. It is more sig- 
nificant as an indorsement, because of its labored 
effort, than the confession that comes from silence, 
or the pleasant compliments that mark a courteous 
and generous antagonist. 

Something, however, may properly be said in behalf 
of the administration, not as personal to me, but as 
carrying out the aggressive policy and pledges repeat- 
edly declared by the Democratic party. In the exercise 
of the appointive power it has been true to its party's 
promise, and has made efficiency, character, and ability 
the tests for public office. In the exercise of the 
power of removal it has sought to maintain a stan- 
dard of honesty, decency, and unselfish purpose among 



358 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1891. 

public officials, and has been thwarted by a partisan 
Council. It has sought to make commissions respon- 
sible to the people, and has been met by a hostile Coun- 
cil which openly declared its power to confirm to be a 
power to dictate a nomination, and by its act sought 
to make nine men instead of one man the appointing 
power of the State. 

It has abolished useless and expensive commissions. 
It has sought to eradicate the lobby by calling public 
attention to the evil, and suggesting more efficient 
restraints upon it. It has refused to allow the payment 
of <i)ll:,000, in violation of the good faith of the Com- 
monwealth to Congress, for lobby services of a State 
agent. It has recommended and aided the constitu- 
tional amendment for the abolition of the poll-tax as 
a qualification for voting, which, having passed two 
Republican Legislatures, is now before the people ; yet 
upon this measure the Republican party has nothing 
to say except in the silence of its platform and the 
known hostility of its candidate. 

It has sought to reform the system of prison manage- 
ment, and to bring greater responsibility into adminis- 
trative boards, but it has been met by a hostile or 
indifferent Legislature. It has sought to increase the 
usefulness of our public schools, and, as urged m my 
inaugural address, " not only to uphold this system in 
its full vigor, but also to provide for its progressive 
developmont, " by suggesting new courses and methods 
of instruction, such as manual training and industrial 
education, and by better provision and more equal 
opportunity for the children in the poorer places. It 
has sought to abolish abuses connected with legislation, 
such as the giving of railroad passes and the entertain- 
ment of committees by interested parties, and has 
recommended more stringent laws to prevent improper 



DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1891. 359 

influences at elections. It has sought to obtain the 
passage of general laws to do away with special legis- 
lation, and has urged that greater powers be given to 
municipalities and local governments. It has sought 
to obtain just and fair legislation in answer to the 
demands of labor, and has made a thorough investiga- 
tion into the "sweating system," which has resulted in 
legislation to remedy its evils. 

This is the proper time and place, I believe, to 
declare, if not to discuss, the real issues of the cam- 
paign, and to repudiate the false issues with which our 
opponents seek to divert public attention. They have 
declared that temperance and the public schools were 
the important State questions. Yet on the first they 
pointedly refused to declare their position, except by 
idle platitudes ; and the second, thank God, is not, and 
cannot be made a political issue. 

If the Republican party desires to make temperance 
an issue, let it first specifically declare its own, and 
but one, position. Does it or its candidate believe 
in legislative or constitutional prohibition ? Will he 
recommend it, or the Republican party pass it ? Does 
it or he believe in the legislation of this year upon the 
liquor question ? Will he recommend repealing such 
legislation and re-enacting the public-bar clause of the 
statute ? 

An answer to these questions will be a plain declara- 
tion of his position far more honest, practical, and 
useful than idle platform expressions of sympathy, 
which are meant to hide a lack of courage and convic- 
tion. Until the Republican party finds and holds and 
declares some definite position on this question, it can 
hardly be an issue. 

My distinguished opponent has seen fit to drag into 
this campaign an institution too glorious, too useful, 



360 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1891. 

and too sacred to be made a political issue. I yield 
to no man in my love for the public schools, or in my 
loyalty and earnest efforts to promote their interests. 
To me they have given an education, and, in return, to 
them I have given four years of earnest service. 

Over and over again the Democratic party has 
declared its loyalty to them, and proved it by its acts. 
Every measure in this Commonwealth for increasing 
the usefulness and influence of the public schools has 
received its strongest support from the Democratic 
party, — such measures, for example, as free text- 
books, increasing the compulsory age for attendance, 
the establishment of evening schools and industrial 
training and manual education. 

He is the enemy of the public schools who would 
breathe through a community the spirit of intolerance. 
He is disloyal to one of our greatest and noblest insti- 
tutions who, placing party above patriotism, and poli- 
tics above principle, seeks, for partisan ends, to excite 
prejudice and to divide a people politically over their 
public schools, when there is, or ought to be, a union 
in thought and word and act. How long can our pub- 
lic schools withstand such attacks of unscrupulous 
politicians ? 

But there are some real State issues in this cam- 
paign. 

First, the Democratic administration to which I have 
referred. Let its every act be searched and criticised; 
but let it be judged in a spirit of justice and honesty, 
and not of petty partisanship. 

Next, the issue of responsible executive government. 
By their acts and declarations the two parties on this 
are at issue. The Democratic party believes that, 
when the people elect their Governor, they mean he 
should in fact be Governor, that ujion him should 



DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1891. 861 

be placed the responsibility and power of control, 
for the exercise of which he is immediately answer- 
able to them; that the power of government and ad- 
ministration is thus kept within control of the people, 
and the people's servant is responsible for every act. 
The Democratic party does not believe that commis- 
sions for administrative work should be beyond the 
control of the people, or that the responsibility for 
their efficiency should be divided among a Governor and 
Council, but that they should be made responsible to 
the Governor, and he to the people. It believes that the 
power of appointments rests with the Governor, and 
the power of the Council to confirm is not a power to 
dictate nominations. It believes in the principle that 
"power without responsibility is always dangerous, but 
power with responsibility to a constituency which can 
readily call it to account is not dangerous, — it is the 
first requisite of efficient administration. " 

Of National questions there are three of paramount 
importance, — the tariff, silver, and the civil service. 
On the last we gladly invite a comparison between the 
present National administration and its predecessor, or 
the Democratic administration in this State. For the 
first time in some years Federal officers are left free 
to take an active and offensive part in caucuses, con- 
ventions, and campaigns; and even Republican State 
officials, appointed by the Governor, do not hesitate 
to become active political partisans. The protests of 
the National Civil Service Commission against such 
conduct go unheeded, and the old abuses of compul- 
sory contributions from officials have been revived. 
Officials by the thousand are removed for politics 
only, and even the protest of Republican senators and 
congressmen is unable to save the head of an efficient 
Democratic postmaster. In the civil service under 



362 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1891. 

Republican administration there has been an utter and 
shameless abandonment of the spirit and purpose of the 
reform. 

We unhesitatingly declare for a sound currency and 
an honest dollar, and we protest, not only against the 
free coinage of silver, but against the present Repub- 
lican legislation, which is bringing us dangerously near 
to a silver basis and an unsound currency. I believe 
that in this Commonwealth both parties are honestly 
opposed to any legislation, present or prospective, which 
threatens these consequences. Then let the Republi- 
can party declare this conviction and repudiate such 
leoislation, that the unanimous voice of the Common- 
wealth may be heard in protest against dangerous 
financial doctrines, with no discordant note except an 
honest rivalry as to the best means of carrying out her 
wish. 

We believe that the revision and reduction of tariff 
, taxation is the supreme political issue, and we again 
declare that it should be on the lines of free raw mate- 
rial and of cheapening the cost of the necessaries of 
life. We confidently believe that this will be a benefit, 
not only to all our people, but especially to New Eng- 
land industries. The demand of our industries for 
such reduction has not been heeded in the McKinley 
Bill. We declare our purpose, in behalf of our in- 
dustries and the people, to fight for this reduction until 
the people get their burden of taxation lessened, and 
our industries the benefit of their location by receiving 
through our seaports their raw material free of 
taxation. 

Fellow-Democrats, I go from you to the people to 
uphold and defend a Democratic administration and 
the principles of our party. We all begin here and 
now an earnest, vigorous, aggressive campaign. For 



DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, 1891. 363 

nearly a year our opponents have been organizing their 
forces and preparing for the battle. They have 
searched for candidates, and advertised for issues. 
They have demanded harmony among their warring 
factions, and peace between their jealous leaders. 
They have raised false issues and evaded the real ones. 
Their aggressive leader, who prefers to fight alone, has 
blundered on the tariff, waved the bloody shirt, and 
endeavored to carry prejudice and politics into our 
public schools, — the glorious institution and the price- 
less heritage of all our people. They have demanded a 
revival of Republicanism, called the roll of their forces, 
and endeavored to gather all under a name, no matter 
what their convictions, or how much or little that name 
may mean to them. They will spare no effort to win 
a victory, whatever it may signify. Let us meet them 
with vigilance, perseverance, and unceasing effort, and, 
calmly, honestly discussing the real issues, trust to the 
common-sense, the conscience, and the patriotism of our 
people to decide aright between us. 



SPEECH 

AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON, OCT. 5, 1891, UPON THE TARIFF 
AND ITS EFFECT UPON MASSACHUSETTS. 

I THANK you most heartily for your cordial welcome. 
May I consider it not only a proof of your sympathy 
and support in the pending struggle, but also your 
indorsement of an administration which has honestly, 
earnestly tried to serve the people's interests, and pro- 
mote the welfare of our beloved Commonwealth? As 
I believe it is the privilege and duty of every citizen 
carefully to examine the acts of a public servant, so it 
is the privilege and duty of such servant to account to 
the people for every act, and also to defend himself 
from unjust and malignant criticism. One such criti- 
cism to-night I propose to answer. The great honor 
has been given me by the people of the Commonwealth 
of presiding over her affairs. With that honor has 
come the grave responsibility faithfully and unselfishly 
to serve her interests, to defend her glorious institu- 
tions, and to uphold her honor. Any public servant 
of hers unfaithful in this is disloyal to his Common- 
wealth. Among the foolish, the false, and the wicked 
issues which the Republican party has endeavored to 
raise in this campaign to excite prejudice rather than 
to carry conviction, is the charge that in a public 
address delivered by me in New York on the tariff 
question I maligned the Commonwealth. "With suspi- 
cious unanimity, as if suggested and forced by cam- 



SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 3G5 

paign managers, that charge has been echoed through 
the Republican Press, which refuses, however, to print 
the address. To-night, again, I challenge the " Boston 
Journal " and the Republican newspapers to print that 
speech, — the whole of it, not a single sentence. But 
you will look in vain for it there from now until elec- 
tion day, though these papers profess to rely upon it 
as a strong reason for my defeat. Then this charge 
has been caught up by my distinguished opponent, and 
after him have come Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart, 
barking it at my heels. Let me read the charge as 
formulated by him in his speech at Haverhill, Septem- 
ber 22. He then said : — 

" We have in Massachusetts this year as our chief magis- 
trate a Democrat. . . . Massachusetts had a right to ex- 
pect that every son of hers, especially if endowed with 
the highest honors in her gift, would be a valiant defender 
of her honor wherever he went. And yet very soon after 
his inauguration, while the very plaudits of his friends were 
ringing in his. ears, he took occasion to detract from our 
industries, to detract from this old Commonwealth. He 
spoke of our abandoned farms, and of our great industries 
' folding their tents, like the Arabs, and silently stealing 
away.' " 

Let me correct the first mistake of Mr. Allen — 
small, however, in comparison with the others — and 
remind him that I delivered that speech some time 
before I entered office, as a private citizen, and not as 
Governor of the Commonwealth. So much for the 
charge. Let us see upon what it is founded. The 
speech referred to was delivered by me, Dec. 23, 1890, 
before the Tariff Reform Club of New York at its cele- 
bration of the great tariff reform victory that had swept 
over the country, and in response to the toast, "The 



366 SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 

place of New England in that contest : once more she 
rebels against unequal and unjust taxation." A politi= 
cal revolution had broken Massachusetts away from her 
Republican moorings in the election of her congress- 
men and Governor. That result, after three years of 
thorough discussion, was due to the tariff question, — 
unless Mr. Lodge believes that he and his Force Bill 
were a potent intluence in turning Massachusetts from 
Republicanism to the pleasant paths of Democracy. 
It was her protest, founded upon mature considera- 
tion, against the Republican policy on the tariff as 
embodied in the JMcKinley Bill. In that speech I 
spoke as follows of the influences that controlled her 
decision. I quote now every word that has been sub- 
ject to adverse criticism : — 

"Two great influences controlled the action of Massachu- 
setts on this question: first, her material interests; and, 
second, her moral sense of right and wrong. She remem- 
bered that under a low tariff her great industries were 
established and her manufacturing towns were founded ; 
that in 1857 she, with the rest of Kew England, was in 
favor of the lowest tariff our country has had for genera- 
tions ; she recalled that in those days her agriculture 
thrived, her industries progressed by leaps and bounds, her 
commerce carried our flag into every part of the civilized 
world, and the JSTew England coast rang with the music of 
anvil and of mallet, building the clipper ships that should 
win the carrying trade of the world. Then she lived through 
thirty years of stringent protection. And sitting down at 
last to examine her condition after such careful 'nursing,' she 
found her agriculture declining, and new and ill-omened offi- 
cers, commissioners of abandoned farms, created in some of 
the New England States. Her foreign commerce had been 
swept from the seas. Great industries, that for generations 
had been her glory and her strength, were ' folding their 
tents, like the Arabs, and silently stealing away.' Others 



SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 367 

were stagnant, others greatly prosperous ; and the line of 
cleavage between stagnation and prosperity seemed to be 
free raw material. She felt the great and growing competi- 
tion of the West and the South, with their natural advantages 
secured to them, while her own were destroyed by a policy 
which set aside a law of Nature and the will of God. Mas- 
sachusetts, with her inherited aptitude for skilled industries, 
will take her chance in any fair competition. She does 
object to competing with her hands tied; she protests 
against law holding the knife that would cut the throat of 
her great industries. But I love to think that a higher 
influence than her pocket controlled her action. I know 
that wrong which touches the pocket pricks the conscience. 
I also know that Massachusetts — G-od bless her ! — against 
her material interests, has been the fruitful field of many ah 
agitation for human rights, equality, and freedom, meant to 
be the forerunner of law, and successful in their purpose. 
If the spirit of the olden time was still in her, it was inev- 
itable that she, true to her history and her traditions, again 
should protest against unequal and unjust taxation." 

Because of that opinion, expressed by me as a private 
citizen, and because of that only, have arisen the hue 
and cry that I have "detracted from this old Common- 
wealth." Let me answer this charge, not because 1 
believe any unprejudiced man serionsl}" thinks that the 
statement quoted is " detraction " of our Commonwealth, 
but because it gives me an opportunity to show what 
party and what policy are really injuring the Common- 
wealth and her industries. First, the argument and 
facts stated in that speech have been used over and 
over again in campaigns in Massachusetts, without the 
charge that such discussion of an economic question was 
mali2;ninoi: the Commonwealth. Is it maligning her to 
declare one's honest conviction that high-tariff taxa- 
tion of the raw materials of our industries has injured 



368 SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 

and is injuring those industries ? Has such taxation 
become so sacred that one cannot question it without 
being traduced as an enemy of the Commonwealth ? 
Second, was not my statement of her condition, of her 
protest against unjust restrictions and unfair competi- 
tion, and of the high moral purpose that guided her, 
and always has, far more complimentary to her than 
the graphic account given by my distinguished opponent 
of her agricultural and mineral resources ? In his 
recent speech at Haverhill he said: "As an agricul- 
tural country Massachusetts cannot hope to excel. If 
Nature has endowed her with mineral resources, she 
has corked them up too safely in her bosom for our 
convenient inspection, and as a mineral community 
Ave area dead failure." Was he, too, maligning the 
Commonwealth? Third. But my critics sa}^, "No 
matter what your motive ; no matter if you are patri- 
otically trying to establish free raw materials for the 
benefit of our industries, and protesting against the 
selfish restrictions which Ohio and Pennsylvania have 
forced upon Massachusetts ; no matter if Massachusetts 
has declared emphatically in favor of such change, — 
still, your facts are wrong, and so you have insulted 
the Commonwealth." Well, let us examine these 
facts. There are volumes of instruction on the tariff 
question in a fair and careful study of them. 

Is it not true that under a low tariff our great indus- 
tries were established and our manufacturing toAvns 
were founded ? Turn to the history of Lowell, with 
such great manufacturing companies as the Hamilton, 
Appleton, Lowell, Middlesex, Lawrence, Boott, Massa- 
chusetts, Lowell bleachery and Lowell machine shop, 
all established before 1860 ; or to the history of Law- 
rence, with its Washington and Atlantic mills, built 
in 1846, its Pacific and Pemberton mills, incorporated 



SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 369 

in 1S52, and its Everett mills, in 1860. Does not the 
founding of Holyoke's industries date from the building 
of her present dam in 1849? Were not great industries 
established in Fall River long before the high tariff; 
and through those industries did not Fall River grow 
to be a city in 1851 ? And is it not on record that 
after our great industries were established in these 
and other places, Massachusetts and New England, 
through their representatives in Congress, voted in. 
1857 for the lowest -tariff our country had had for 
generations? Were her representatives then hostile 
to her industries? "Were they in their ofhcial acts 
"detracting" from her interests and maligning their 
Commonwealth ? 

But it is said that I had no right to comment on 
her present condition after thirty years of stringent 
protection, or to say that some of her industries 
were "stagnant," some greatly prosperous, some were 
"silently stealing away," and that the "line of cleav- 
age between them seemed to be free raw material, " or 
to criticise the condition of her agriculture. If one 
honestly believes that an economic policy is injurious 
to his State, and that it is dictated by the selfish 
interests of competing States, I believe it is far more 
patriotic to protest against that policy than patiently 
to submit to it, or, worse still, to be an active agent in 
forcing it upon the State. The Democratic position 
on the tariff is a demand, not for free-trade, but for 
free raw materials, — free wool, coal, iron ore, copper, 
lumber, etc., and all in the interest and for the benefit 
of our great industries. Let us examine this position 
in the light of recorded facts and the statement of the 
industries themselves. 

Some Massachusetts industries are, or have been, 
"silently stealing away." First, the copper-smelting 

24 



370 SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 

industry. The time was when that industry thrived 
in Massachusetts, and great companies, like the Revere 
Copper Company of Boston and the Crocker Brothers 
of Taunton, did a prosperous business in smelting 
ores. But the demand was made upon the Republi- 
can party for a duty upon copper. In whose inter- 
est ? In that of Massachusetts ? No. It was bound 
to kill her smelting works, injure her ship-building 
and repairing industries, and burden the manufacture 
of copper and brass goods. Yet, in answer to the 
demand of the owners of the rich Lake Superior mines, 
against the protest of ship-owners and ship-builders, 
of smelting works and copper and brass manufac- 
turers, and over the veto of a President, the Republican 
party in 1869 put a duty upon copper. What was the 
result? Let the treasurer of the Revere Copper Com- 
pany answer the question. He says, on Feb. 10, 1888: 
" Our smelting works at Point Shirley were legislated 
out of existence." And, referring to this duty, he 
adds: "This killed our business. We ran for a short 
time longer, and then had to give up and sell out the 
property. The buildings and other evidences of the 
industry have wholly disappeared." That duty threw 
out of employment in Massachusetts some hundreds of 
men, and destroyed manufacturing property worth 
hundreds of thousands of dollars. But the Lake 
Superior mines, having the right by law and by the 
Republican policy to tax the whole people for their 
special benefit, have made enormous profits, and have 
been profitably selling our own American copper in 
foreign markets cheaper than to our own people; 
while our copper and brass industries were feeling the 
burden of this tax, and our vessels were being sent 
to foreign ports to be there repaired with American 
copper, because cheaper than in our own ports. So 



SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 871 

much for one industry that has been stolen away 
from Massachusetts by the Republican policy of tax- 
ing the raw materials of our industries. Second : let 
me now refer to another, the iron and steel indus- 
try f^and here I quote from the printed statement and 
petition of the industry itself that was circulated in 
February, 1889, not as a political document, nor pre- 
pared for political purposes, but put forth by the indus- 
try itself, months after the election, as a fair statement 
of its condition, and its reason for tariff reduction. 
It is signed by five hundred and ninety -eight "pro- 
prietors or manufacturers of iron-working establish- 
ments in New England, being members of all political 
parties," as it recites, including Governor Ames and 
many other leading Republicans and the largest iron and 
steel industries in New England. Among the signers 
are the Taimton, Rhode Island, and Manchester loco- 
motive works, the Albert Field Tack Company, the 
American Screw Company, Washburn & Moen, the 
Bay State, South Boston, Tremont, Plymouth, and 
Fairhaven foundries, the Armington & Sims Engine 
Company, the Boston Bridge Works, Cambridge roll- 
ing-mills, the American Axe Sl Tool Company, and 
hundreds of nail, machine, tack, boiler, locomotive, 
sewing-machine, and other manufactories and found- 
ries. That statement declares that the duty on pig 
iron "is practically prohibitory;" that because of it 
"the tendency has been to wipe out the iron and 
steel industries, large and small, of New England. 
The surviving mills owe their continued existence in 
a small part to the fact that they have been able to 
pick up and rework a little old material (scrap iron, 
castings and turnings) in their own territory, l)ut 
chiefly to the fact that they have, through the com- 
pulsion of circumstances, been systematically engaged 



372 SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 

ill the degradation of American labor in New Eng- 
land. A skilled operative in a New England roll- 
ing-mill does not on the average receive one-half the 
pay that a man similarly employed in a Pittsburg 
mill receives for the same work." Then, after stating 
that the annual production of rolled iron and steel in 
New England has dwindled 40 per cent from 1880 to 
1887, while during that time there has been an increase 
of 57 per cent in the production of rolled iron and steel 
throughout the country, this statement of the manu- 
facturers adds: "The heavy mill-wrighting business 
hardly exists in New England. . . . Our iron and 
steel architectural beams, columns, roofing, gas pipes, 
water pipes, and sewer pipes are made in Pennsyl- 
vania. " It states further : " It is then clearly the duty 
on coal and crude iron that is strangling in New Eng- 
land one of the largest of all the wonderful industries 
of our modern days." And with almost pathetic insis- 
tence it declares: "There is no necessity for letting it 
die; it is only the existing duties on coal, ore, and 
crude iron that are strangling it. The abolition of 
those duties will not only keep it alive, but will insure 
it a tremendous vitality and large increase, and will 
add more largely to the wealth and prosperity of New 
England than any possible legislation on any other 
subject." In a published interview about the same 
time, Governor Ames declared: "The iron trade of 
New England is gradually disappearing. The natural 
advantages of competitors plus the duty mean death to 
the New England iron industry " The facts show that 
the rolling-mills in New En<>;land have been reduced 
from 41 in 1880 to 24 in 1890 ; the cut-nail industries 
have been reduced from twelve to two or three since 
1872. Governor Ames in the interview referred to 
says, after speaking of many of the shovel works 



SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 373 

that were in existence : " The Ames works at North 
Easton are now the only existing shovel works in 
New England of any importance." Such great 
works as the East Bridgewater Iron Company, the 
Fall River, Pembroke, Old Colony, and Tisdale iron 
works, the Weymouth and Providence and the Robin- 
son Iron Company, Parker mills, and, more re- 
cently, the South Boston Iron Company, and the 
Norway Iron and Steel Works, have all gone out of 
existence, and others have removed, or are removing, 
from the Commonwealth. 

Mr. Wadlin, the chief of the Bureau of Statistics, in 
his report on Massachusetts manufactures in 1890, 
says: "The total product of rolled iron was 109,252 
tons in 1880, valued at 87,773,058, and 42,847 tons in 
1889, valued at $1,887,062. The product of Bessemer 
and open hearth steel aggregated 22,342 tons in 1880, 
valued at 82,178,860, and 11,887 tons in 1889, valued 
at 8461,419." And on page 391 he shows that the 
number of persons employed in the iron manufactures 
at Taunton have declined from 2,942 in the best days 
of that industry to 1,537 in 1890. Remember that 
this decline of tlie iron industry is of one of our 
earliest and strongest industries, and is wholly due, 
as itself says, to the present tariff policy, — that it is 
not the failure of a now industry, or of an attempt to 
create a new industry, but a struggle for life of an old 
and well-established one. 

Third, let us now turn to another industry, — the 
glass industry. 

What has become of it in Massachusetts ? There 
used to be here great and prosperous companies, like 
the Sandwich, the New England, the Bay State, and 
the Suffolk, su|)plying not only our home market, but 
sending their goods into the markets of the world. 



374 SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 

Mr. Wadlin, in his recent Report on the Growth of 
Manufactures, on page 372, states that from 1855 to 
1885 the product of the glass industries declined from 
(12, 648, 125 to *1, 091, 949, and the number of men 
employed from 1,887 to 982; and since 1885 the 
two largest companies in that industry have finally 
closed their doors. What is the cause of this ? Let 
me read a single extract from a statement of one 
thoroughly conversant with the industry, and formerly 
a director in the largest company : " Twenty years ago 
Massachusetts had two, of the most famous glass manu- 
factories in the United States. They had a large capi- 
tal, paid handsome dividends, and produced as fine 
table glassware as was made in the world. They are 
now extinct. Neither one has produced glassware for 
several years. The duty on coal was the chief obstacle 
that discouraged the work." The failure of each of 
those industries threw from three hundred to four hun- 
dred men out of employment, and wrecked about half a 
million dollars of capital. 

Fourth, let us pass to another industry, that of ship- 
building and ship-owning. The merchant marine of 
the United States in foreign trade has declined, from 
1861 to 1890, from 2,486,894 tons to 928,062 tons. 
The tonnage of vessels built in New England has 
declined from 183,625 tons in 1857 to 39,983 tons in 
1889. Mr. Wadlin, in his report, shows a decline in 
value in ship-building in Massachusetts from $4,435,323 
in 1865, to .*2, 107, 986 in 1885; and in the hands 
employed in that industry from 2,424 to 1,534; and this 
includes a large number of yachts and pleasure-boats 
that in recent times have been built. 

Fifth. Next let us consider a few facts in reference 
to the woollen industry. In the first place, in 1889, 
524 manufacturers and dealers in wool and woollen 



SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 375 

goods petitioned Congress for free wool, and 196 others 
for a reduction in duties. In those petitions they re- 
ferred to "the present depression in the wool manu- 
facturing industry," and added: "As the only civilized 
country in the world, so far as we are informed, which 
levies a duty on raw wool, we ask that American indus- 
try may be relieved of this unnatural burden, and that 
our domestic wool interests may now be put on the 
same wholesome basis as the cotton manufacturing- 
industry, with free raw material." Among the signers 
were some of the most famous manufacturers and mills 
in the country engaged in that industry. Next, Brad- 
street's report of Dec. 28, 1889, shows that in the year 
1889 there were 72 wool and woollen goods failures 
against 57 in 1888, and that the liabilities were nearly 
three times as great. On June 14, 1890, the Wool Con- 
sumers' Association, in a petition to Congress signed 
by such well-known men as Arthur T. Lyman, Jesse 
Metcalf, and others, and by such famous companies as 
the Lowell Manufacturing Company, the Wanskuck, 
Weybosset, and others, said: "For the protection of 
the wool manufacture of the country, and for its rescue 
from a most hampered and depressed condition, we ask 
for a great reduction or a total abolition of the duty 
on wool. " It added that such duties had been tried " at 
great cost to the consumer, with destructive restric- 
tion to the manufacturer, and without any compensat- 
ing advantages to the wool-grower." Now let us turn 
to the statistics of the growth of the woollen industry 
in Massachusetts, and compare it with the growth 
of other industries in Massachusetts whose principal 
raw materials are free of duty. Mr. Wadlin, in the 
report referred to, states that the value of woollen 
goods made in Massachusetts in 1865 was %31,550,081, 
and in 1885 was 131,748,278, and the number of 
hands employed increased only from 18,965 to 18,970. 



876 SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 

But during that period the boot and shoe industry, 
with hides free since 1872, increased in the vahie of 
its product from $35,741,393 to .*114,729,533, and the 
number of hands employed from 52,821 to 64,858, The 
leather industry during the same time increased in its 
product from .112,062,046 to *28,008,851, and the num- 
ber of hands employed from 5,321 to 9,228. In the silk 
industry during that period the increase in its product 
was from $751,146 to $3,501,240, and the number of 
hands employed from 503 to 2,126. In the paper in- 
dustry during that period the product increased from 
$5,383,301 to $21,223,626, and the number of hands 
employed from 3,578 to 8,620. In the cotton industry 
the increase in the number of hands was from 24,151 to 
60,132, and in the value of goods from $35,355,699 to 
$61,425,097. Even add to woollen goods the worsted 
goods, which are separately classified, and still there 
is a great difference shown in the growth of it and of 
these industries whose principal raw materials have, 
during most or all of this time, been free from duty. 
So great has been the prosperity in the cotton industry 
that last year six new mills were erected in Fall River, 
which have led to an over-production that at present is 
causing a reaction. In view of these facts does it not 
look as though some industries were " stagnant, " some 
"greatly prosperous,"' and that the "line of cleavage" 
was free raw material ? With justice, the woollen in- 
dustry has demanded free raw material ; it asked for 
bread, but it got a stone. Instead of free wool or lower 
duties, the duties were raised still higher, and with the 
full assent and aid of the Republican representatives 
from Massachusetts. What has been the result ? Let 
me quote from the " American Wool Reporter, " the 
journal of the woollen industry, whose editor is a pro- 
nounced Republican and protectionist. On July 23, 
1891, he says editorially: — 



SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 877 

" The wool industry iii several departments shows greater 
depression to-day than before the passage of the McKinley 
Bill. ... If the expected benefits from the tariff are to 
come, they are certainly a long time iu materializing. At 
any rate, the next effort that is made for a general revision 
of import duties in an upward direction will be attended 
by the query of an increased number of manufacturers as 
to whether doubtful benefits that are to be enjoyed later on 
are worth the weary period of temporary depression which 
has followed nearly every application of higher tariff laws, 
except upon a few special articles." 

On Aug. 6, 1891, he says editorially: — ■ 

" The woollen mills have had a long and exhausting period 
of depression. Their business was dull and unsatisfactory 
when the iron trade was active, when the shoe and leather 
interest was profitable, and when the cotton mills were enjoy- 
ing the handsome dividends of the year 1889 and 1890." 

Truly the opinion of its editor, expressed in his 
paper Oct. 23, 1890, has come true, when he said: 
"I arraign the tariff upon wool in the United States, 
because it is a tax on the consumer. Finally, I oppose 
the duties on wool because they are obstacles to the 
development of our manufactures. " 

A single word about agriculture. It is true that in 
some lines, such as truck-farming, dairy and green- 
house products, there has been an increase; but in 
staple agricultural products such as meats, cereals, 
wool, and tobacco, there has been an enormous decrease 
in the last thirty years. So it happens that places like 
Hadley, which in 1875 was the first agricultural town 
in our Commonwealth, have decreased in population, — 
Hadley has fallen to the sixth place, while Worcester 
stands first and Boston second as the leadino; a2:ricul- 
tural towns of the Commonwealth. But there has been 
a marked decrease of the population in the genuine agri- 



378 SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 

cultural towns. Hampden County, with a gain of 30 per 
cent in population during the last ten years, shows a loss 
in over one-half of its towns ; Berkshire, with an increase 
of 17| per cent, shows a loss in 24 of its 32 towns. In 
many counties of the Commonwealth more than one-half 
of the towns, and those agricultural, have lost in popu- 
lation. Commissioners of abandoned farms have been ap- 
pointed in some New England States, and already there 
are reported in this Commonwealth 1,461 abandoned 
farms, and of these 772 have buildings upon them. 

With this hurried review of our i)rincipal industries, 
noting the prosperity of some, and the lack of prosperity 
of others, I believe that it is true that Massachusetts 
asks and needs, and some day will have, free raw 
materials for the benefit of all her industries and all 
her people. I do not doubt, and never have doubted, 
that Massachusetts, with the skill, industry, and intelli- 
gence of her people, with their inherited aptitude for 
manufacturing, with the enterprise of her capitalists, is 
and always will be great and prosperous. I doubt as 
little that if the hand of the law should lift some of this 
burden of taxation and give to Massachusetts the benefit 
of her location, she and her industries would be greater 
and more prosperous. Is it not true, as I said in New 
York, that Massachusetts will take her chance in any 
fair competition ? She does object to competing with 
her hands tied. She protests against law holding the 
knife that would cut the throat of her great indus- 
tries. Who is the one that detracts from the interests 
and industries of our beloved Commonwealth ? There 
came a demand from Pennsylvania that duties on 
iron and coal should remain. It was followed by 
another demand from the political shepherds of Ohio 
for higher duties on wool, and by another from Penn- 
sylvania and the West for doubling the duties on 
tin plates, and for re-imposing a duty on hides, no 



SPEECH AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON. 379 

matter how injurious these demands might be to Mas- 
sachusetts industries. Against these demands went 
forth the indignant protests of our industries, dechxr- 
ing that such a policy would be injurious to them and 
to the welfare of our Commonwealth. Where were 
Massachusetts' sons in that struggle? Her Democratic 
representatives were listening to her appeal and fighting 
for free raw materials to build up her industries. Her 
Republican representatives were bending the knee to 
Ohio and Pennsylvania, and, deaf to her protests, gave 
their aid to let her burdens remain, or to make them 
heavier still. I charged them then from every stump 
in Massachusetts, as I charge them now, with being- 
recreant to her interests, and yielding for partisan pur- 
poses to demands froili other sections that were hostile 
to the welfare of our State. I said Massachusetts had 
an accounting to make with them ; and hardly were the 
words spoken when Massachusetts made her accounting, 
and, with emphatic voice, declared that not those who 
denounced this policy, but those who were resj)onsible 
for it, were the sons who had been disloyal to her. I 
have no fear of trying this question over again in 
Massachusetts, nor shall my voice be hushed by the 
unjust and silly criticism that he who points out the 
injurious effects to his Commonwealth of an economic 
policy is maligning her name and interests. Malign 
my old Commonwealth, where I was born and have 
passed my life, whose glorious public schools have 
given to me an education, whose people have confided 
to me a high and honorable trust, whose brilliant 
history and sturdy virtues, whose great institutions 
and blessed charities I have praised from a hundred 
platforms, and to whose service I have given the 
utmost of my strength and ability? My friends, there 
is some criticism that cuts to the heart, and yet is 
almost too contemptible to answer. 



SPEECH 

AT LYNN, OCT. 29, 1891. STATE ISSUES. — THE TARIFF IN 
ITS RELATION TO THE LEATHER INDUSTRY. 

IT is a little late now to discuss the issues of the 
campaign, but it is not too late to sum them up, 
and to show you what sort of a campaign the Republi- 
cans have been waging. They started long ago with a 
search for a candidate and an advertisement for issues. 
They demanded peace between their jealous leaders, 
and harmony among their warring factions, and called 
upon all their forces to rally under the name " Repub- 
lican," however little that name might now mean to 
them. 

They demanded an aggressive candidate, but nomi- 
nated one who has declined to meet his opponent in fair 
and manly debate, and who absolutely refuses to define 
his position, or to declare any conviction on the great 
questions of State policy over which he asks the people 
to give him a controlling influence. 

In his speech last night at Worcester, Mr. Allen 
remarked to his audience: "You and I have alike 
reason to rejoice that this campaign is so near its end. 
You, because, having performed the political duties 
enjoined on American citizens, you will be free to pur- 
sue your usual business and employment undisturbed 
by politics ; I, because the exacting requirements now- 
adays imposed upon a candidate will be at an end." 

Mr. Allen, your duty is not over, nor have you ever 
begun it. There is time left to do it, and this platform 



SPEECH AT LYNN. 381 

and to-morrow night, when you speak here, are the 
time and place for it. You owe a duty to the people of 
the Commonwealth. You come before them as the 
candidate of a great party, seeking election to a high 
and responsible office. Your first and obvious duty is 
to declare to them your views on the great questions of 
the day in which they are vitally interested. That 
duty you cannot escape, except by evasion or silence. 
Let me tell you our people recognize and will tolerate 
differences of opinion; but they will not tolerate the 
absence of all oi)inion, and they condemn a lack of cour- 
age or conviction in any political leader. 

I propose to-night, as I have done repeatedly, to 
point out to you this obvious duty by demandilig your 
attention to some matters upon which you have failed 
to express an opinion. 

First, there has been an attempt, Mr. Allen, by the 
leader of your party, supported by four-fifths of it in 
the Legislature, to gerrymander the State in the con- 
gressional districts. That attempt thus far has been 
defeated. Your leader has refused, however, to repu- 
diate his purpose. The present law is within the con- 
trol of the Legislature and the Governor of next year, 
and can be repealed or amended to carry out his pur- 
pose. Do you, Mr. Allen, repudiate that purpose ? 
Will you agree, if elected, to veto any attempt to 
change that law; or do you stand, with Mr. Lodge 
and four-fifths of your party, in favor of geri-yman- 
dering this State ? 

Second, there is before the people a great constitu- 
tional amendment to abolish the poll-tax as a qualifi- 
cation for voting, and to give to our people the great 
blessing of free manhood suffrage. Mr. Beard said last 
night: "It has been favored by Republican governors 
and Republican leaders all the way down. " 



882 SPEECH AT LYNN. 

I know that ever since the birth of the Republican 
party the Democratic party has demanded the abolition 
of this tax, but that in this it has always been defeated 
by the Republican party. I know that the justice of 
our demand has been recognized and admitted over and 
over again by Republican leaders like Sumner, Wilson, 
Dana, Boutwell, and Banks, and by many of its leaders 
of to-day; but our demand has always failed because the 
Republican party feared, when it ceased to tax the 
right to vote, that its power in Massachusetts was 
ended. 

I know that your party has refused this year to 
declare its position upon this question. I know that 
upon every opportunity you had, Mr. Allen, you voted 
against the abolition of this tax, yet, notwithstanding 
your opposition, this amendment is now before the peo- 
ple. I demand, in their name, to know your present 
position. Are you still in favor of this tax qualifica- 
tion, and opposed to its abolition, or have you changed 
your mind ? If you have changed your mind, why have 
you not announced the fact ? Is it conversion under the 
stress of a losing campaign ? If even at this late day 
you will declare in favor of its abolition, we can prob- 
ably secure this desirable result. Your first duty to the 
people is to state your position. 

Third. Your party professes to believe in temper- 
ance, and yet refuses to declare specifically its position. 
We know it has been on all sides of that question. Wo 
know that upon a platform which means nothing, and is 
meant to mean nothing, it has nominated this year 
one who will say nothing, but who has voted both for 
and against a prohibitory law, and later even found a 
third position on the question, — a straddle where, on 
a tie vote on the passage of such a law, he refused to 
vote at all. 



SPEECH AT LYNN. 383 

I do not believe in a prohibitory law. Do you, Mr. 
Allen ? Will you, if elected, recommend or approve 
a prohibitory law ? Do you or do you not believe in 
the legislation of this year on the liquor question ? 
Would you recommend or approve of the repeal of 
such legislation ? Would you recommend or approve 
putting back the public-bar clause in the statute ? Are 
you with the majority or the minority of your party 
on this question ? Do you believe that a standing- 
drink is a sin, and a sitting drink salvation ? 

I demand, in the name of the people of the Common- 
wealth, whose votes you are seeking, that you declare 
your position on all of these questions. An eager and 
unsatisfied public will get from you an answer, or go 
to the polls with a knowledge that you have not the 
courage to answer. 

Fourth, there is, Mr. Allen, here in this, as in other 
communities of Massachusetts, a large body of our 
fellow-citizens vitally interested in the enactment of 
wise, just, and conservative laws to promote the inter- 
ests of the masses of our people, and to elevate the 
cause of labor. You have had an opportunity to act 
in the Legislature on many of these laws. You have 
opposed and voted against weekly and fortnightly pay- 
ment Acts, against the Employers' Liability Act, against 
free text -books for our public schools, and against other 
such measures. Many of these, notwithstanding your 
opposition, have since become laws, recognized and 
upheld by all as wise and just, and in the interests of 
our people. Are you still of the opinion that these 
laws are unwise ? Does your unbroken record of oppo- 
sition to them correctly define your position to-day 
towards legislation of this character ? 

Fifth, there is and has been, Mr. Allen, for many 
years a demand of the people that elections should be 



384 SPEECH AT LYNN. 

made the honest, free, and independent expression of 
the voters' opinion, clear of all attemi)ts at coercion, 
corruption, or undue influence. You had an oppor- 
tunity to act upon these matters in the Legislature. 
Besides voting to tax the suffrage, 3'ou voted against 
a bill to prevent intimidation and interference with 
voters at the polls. You also voted against a bill to 
prohibit the improper use of money or other consider- 
ation for election purposes. Do these votes express 
your present opinion, or outline your policy if elected 
Governor of our State ? 

Your views upon all these matters, as a candidate 
for the highest office in the State, where, if elected, 
you can exert a powerful influence, are far more 
important than your opinion upon the silver, the tariff, 
or any other National question. It is time, then, for 
you to declare your position. While your past delay 
may raise a doubt as to your sincerity now, it is far 
better in this to be late than never. 

The Republicans had not the courage in their plat- 
form to declare any position for their party on the 
constitutional amendment to abolish the poll-tax, or 
any definite position on temperance and other great 
questions of interest to our ])eople; but they nominated 
as their candidate one who has voted in favor of taxing 
the right to vote, and who has been on all sides of the 
temperance question, and who now refuses to state his 
position on either question. They have talked of free 
and fair and pure elections, but rallied under the 
leadership of Mr. Lodge, the author, sponsor, and 
promoter of a scheme to gerrymander our Common- 
wealth vehemently denounced by some of his own party 
leaders, though supported by four-fifths of his party. 
Neither he nor his candidate, nor his party, though 
often challenged to do so, will now repudiate this 



SPEECH AT LYNN. 385 

scheme. Only the defeat of the Republican party will 
prevent this outrage to our Commonwealth. The 
candidate of this party of professed purity voted also 
against laws to prevent the intimidation of voters, and 
the corrupt use of money at the polls. 

Their hypocrisy to the cause of civil service reform 
is made obvious by the turning loose of their Federal 
and State officials, who appear as a fighting force for 
the Republican party, and by such gross violation of 
the spirit of that reform as our Commonwealth has not 
seen for many years. 

Their hypocrisy to the cause of labor is consummated 
in the nomination of a candidate who has an unbroken 
record of opposition to every measure in the interest of 
labor upon which he could lay his hands. 

They arrogantly profess to be the sole guardians of 
our glorious public schools, and wickedly strive to 
divide a people politically over this great and sacred 
institution who are and ought to be one in love and 
loyalty to it; but they nominated as their candidate 
a man who voted against free text-books, — a great 
measure in the interest of our public schools, — and 
the Republican party has been constantly opposed to 
laws that would increase the influence and usefulness 
of such schools. The strongest support for every meas- 
ure in their interest — such as free text-books, evening 
schools, greater public school facilities in manufactur- 
ing towns, raising the compulsory age of attendance, 
industrial education, etc. — has always come from the 
Democratic party; and our leaders, unlike theirs, have 
experienced the great benefits of education in the public 
schools, and later given their services to them. 

Then the Republicans have sought to make the char- 
acter and intelligence of a majority of the people of 
this Commonwealth an issue in this campaign. Their 

25 



386 SPEECH AT LYNN. 

candidate, has referred to the Democratic party as an 
ignorant lower stratum of society, with a fringe of 
respectability ; a Republican ex-Governor has referred 
to Democrats as mud and dirt. Other speakers have 
spoken of them as the "slums.'" A Republican con- 
gressman calls them "a combination of Harvard Col- 
lege and the slums;" and at last comes Mr. Lodge, 
undertaking to prove by statistics that the Democratic 
party — a majority of the people of the Commonwealth 
— comes from the criminal classes ! I do not believe 
that in any campaign in this Commonwealth so gross 
and false a libel has ever been uttered against her 
people. I believe, too, that the people will remember 
this insult, and indignantly resent it upon election 
day. 

Next, let me show you the sort of criticism that 
the Republicans have made upon me and my admin- 
istration. From every speaker, big and little, on 
their side, at the instigation of their campaign man- 
agers, has come an attack upon me because in public 
speech I stated the injurious effect that their tariff 
policy had wrought to some of our Massachusetts in- 
dustries, and demanded relief for them by freeing 
from taxation their raw materials. Yet that speech 
no Republican paper, though challenged to do it, has 
dared to print; and their State Committee has deliber- 
ately mutilated and garbled it, in violation of every 
principle of honesty and decency; until at last the 
indignation of the people compelled the Repu1)licans to 
suppress their wretched and contempti])le work. The 
facts stated by me in that speech in reference to the 
injury to our iron, steel, and glass industries have been 
admitted in public speech by Mr. Allen to be true ; yet 
for his slander of me, based upon my statement of 
those facts, he has uttered not one word of retraction 



SPEECH AT LYNN., 387 

or apology. The Republican campaign has sunk below 
the level where conscience and a sense of honor seem 
to have any influence upon it. 

Then on National questions we find their campaign 
has been on the same line of hypocrisy. The Republi- 
cans undertake to criticise the Democratic party for its 
position on the silver question when their own party 
stands responsible for the present silver legislation, 
which would not have been enacted except for the 
votes of the Republican members from Massachusetts, 
given "for politics only;" and against that legislation 
as well as against free coinage stood the Democratic 
members of Congress from Massachusetts. 

Not content with that record, the Republican party 
has repeatedly in State Conventions indorsed the pres- 
ent silver legislation, against which our great com- 
mercial bodies have protested, and even in this State 
the Republicans defend that legislation ; and the only 
party in Massachusetts which stands absolutely com- 
mitted to carry out the real sentiment of our people in 
favor of sound currency and a repeal of present danger- 
ous silver legislation is the Democratic party. Yet 
the Republicans have the audacity to say that victory 
for their party in this State will be a victory for sound 
and honest money I 

It is easy enough to see why the Republicans have 
run their campaign on this low level. They have en- 
tirely underrated the intelligence of our people. They 
profess to believe that the verdict of last year, after 
three years of thorough discussion, was due to igno- 
rance, and was based upon misrepresentation. They 
forget that no question since the agitation against 
slavery has had a more thorough consideration than the 
tariff question, nor has the decision on any politi- 



388 SPEECH AT LYNN. 

cal issue ever been given with more deliberation and 
intelligence. But starting on this false assumption 
that our people could be deceived, they determined 
that their campaign this year should be run upon that 
l)asis; and from beginning to end it has, therefore, had 
the ring of utter insincerity and hypocrisy. 

Now, let us sum up briefly what has been shown in 
reference to the tariff question and the McKinley Bill. 
We have shown that the influence behind the increase 
of taxation in that bill was the influence of men who 
had goods to sell, and not of people who had goods to 
buy ; that the object and purpose of that increase of the 
tariff was to check imports, as Republicans declared, 
so as to check competition, and so to raise prices ; that 
last year the Republicans confessed that that was its 
purpose, and, from their President down, derided any 
one as a cheap man who wanted a cheap coat, and said 
they were "sick of this cry of 'cheap, cheap, cheap;' 
that it was undesirable and un-American. " 

We have shown that immediately after the passage 
of the McKinley Bill, and because of it, the various 
trades — and I have here in my hand the circulars of 
many of them — sent word to their customers of an 
increase of the price of their goods, on account of the 
increase of duties in the McKinley Bill. These are not 
advertisements, but trade circulars. 

We have shown that our leading firms of Boston are 
paying their duties under protest, in tbe hope of upset- 
ting the McKinley Bill in court, because they feel the 
additional burdens of that bill, as they pay its taxes, 
and will be relieved by the lesser taxes of the old law. 
If they pay these taxes and find them an additional 
burden, it is you and I, my friends, their customers, 
who will finally pay them. 

We have shown by price-lists taken from trade jour- 



SPEECH AT LYNN. 389 

nals, from Republican papers like the "Commercial 
Bulletin" and the "Daily Advertiser," from well- 
known and responsible firms, that already on six hun- 
dred articles where duties have been raised, prices have 
been raised also ; and these articles, almost without 
exception, are the common necessaries of life. We 
are quite willing that this question of prices should 
be submitted, as it must have been already, to the test 
of every man's experience in making his purchases. 

We have also shown that these high and increased 
duties are many of them a grievous burden to the 
industries of Massachusetts, and against them those 
industries have protested. We have shown that against 
the increased duty upon lime and tin plate and other 
articles there came the formal protest of some of our 
industries ; that when under this bill it was threatened 
to put back the tax on hides, from every leather and 
boot and shoe centre in Massachusetts there came an 
indignant protest because such tax would be a grievous 
injury to those industries. And yet, notwithstanding 
their protest, that tax still hangs over that industry, 
and may be imposed on Jan. 1, 1892, unless some 
unforeseen relief appears. 

We have shown, as facts admitted now by our oppo- 
nents upon the stump, that our iron and steel industry 
has declined, that our glass industry has declined, that 
our ship-building has declined, that our foreign ship- 
ping has declined, that our copper-smelting industry 
has gone, and that other industries have been injured 
by this taxation of raw material. 

We have also shown that since the high-tariff policy 
our great industries, whose principal raw material has 
been free from duty, have grown much more than our 
industries whose raw material is taxed ; that our silk, 
our paper, our cotton, our leather and boot and shoe 



390 SPEECH AT LYNN. 

industries, largely free from this burden of taxation, 
show a larger growth than our woollen industry, which 
is hampered and embarrassed by such taxation. 

In the light of these facts it ig evident that some of 
our great industries have declined by this tariff taxa- 
tion, that some have been stagnant, that some have 
greatly prospered, and that the line of cleavage seems 
to be free raw material. We have, therefore, a right 
to say that those sons of Massachusetts who gave their 
voices and their votes to put this burden of the McKinley 
Bill upon our people and our industries were false to 
the interests both of our people and the industries of 
our Commonwealth; that they permitted other sections 
of the country to reap benefits by such taxation at the 
expense of Massachusetts and New England. 

We have further shown that though such taxation is 
claimed by the Republicans to be for the benefit of labor, 
yet in no protected industry has any one pointed out any 
benefit that has come to labor in that industry, or any 
rise in wages since the passage of the McKinley Bill ; 
but, on the contrary, we have proved that upon the 
working-man, as upon all our people, has come the 
additional burden of higher taxation. 

A few words only about the boot and shoe industry, 
which is so important in this part of our State. That 
is the greatest industry in Massachusetts, measured 
by the number of persons employed in it. An injury 
to that branch of manufacture would affect more peo- 
ple than any other in our State. The product of that 
industry in 1885 was -$115,000,000. The value of 
the stock used was over 170,000,000. Much of that 
stock is leather, the raw material of which, hides, is 
free from these tariff taxes ; but a large proportion of 
it is made up of articles upon w^hich there is tariff 
taxation. I have here a list, that has already been 



SPEECH AT LYNN. 391 

published, of forty of these articles which go into the 
manufacture of boots and shoes, upon all of which the 
McKinley Bill raised the tariff, and upon twenty-seven 
of which the price has since been raised. 

Do you think that that higher price is any benefit to 
your boot and shoe industry ? Does it not make the 
cost of its product greater, and with a higher cost will 
there not be less demand ? Will not this less demand 
mean that fewer goods will be made, and so a less 
demand for labor, which can only result either in a 
shut down of work or a cut down of wages ? 

Is it not true that when its principal raw material, 
hides, was threatened directly with a tariff tax, there 
came a unanimous protest from all the boot and shoe 
manufacturers in the country against that tax as a 
burden to their industry? And yet, by the terms of the 
McKinley Bill, the President is compelled, on Jan. 1, 
1892, to declare a duty of 1| cent per pound on hides, 
unless by that time reciprocal relations are established 
with the countries from which hides come. From such 
countries, where no reciprocity treaty has yet been 
made, we imported last year $24,000,000 worth of 
hides and skins. The fact that with some smaller 
countries reciprocity treaties have been made, compels 
the President in good faith to them, as well as by per- 
emptory provision of the law, to enforce these taxes 
against the other countries, so that it seems inevitable 
that on Jan. 1, 1892, the tax on hides will be put back. 

There is one thing that will prevent the imposition 
of this tax, — another sweeping Democratic victory for 
tariff reform. That will quickly lead Congress to re- 
lieve the boot and shoe industry from this injury which 
now hangs threateningly over its head. I do not see 
how any manufacturer of boots and shoes, I do not see 
how any employee in that industry, who is vitally inter- 



392 SPEECH AT LYNN. 

ested, as all must be, in its growth and prosperity, can 
hesitate to cast his vote for the Democratic party and 
tariff reform, which means relieving his industry from 
present taxation, and also preventing this grievous and 
threatened tax on hides from being again established. 

The leather and boot and shoe industries certainly 
cannot have forgotten the great impetus and growth 
that came to them when in 1872 the tax upon hides 
was removed, nor can they have forgotten the fact that 
every year since then we have been exporting millions 
of dollars worth of finished leather and boots and shoes 
made here by our workmen, and sold in foreign mar- 
kets in competition with the labor of the world. 



SPEECH 

AT DEDHAM, OCT. 9, 1892. STATE ISSUES: THE MEAN- 
ING OF TARIFF FOR REVENUE. — THE EFFECT OF 
TARIFF UPON PRICES. 

T THANK you for your welcome. I am glad to come 
here to open the campaign. Here is a sturdy 
Democracy, which year in and year out has seen the 
light and followed it. 

Here through this whole community, too, is a body 
of independent men, who, seeking only the truth and 
good government, have broken from their old party 
associations to follow where their conscience and con- 
victions led them. We welcome them to our ranks, 
and recognize in their sup])ort an unselfish and un- 
prejudiced indorsement of the principles, the policy, 
the truth, and the justice of our party's cause. 

I am glad to be here with the distinguished repre- 
sentative from this district [Mr. Williams]. His 
conspicuous ability, undaunted courage, loyalty to 
Massachusetts, her interests and her beliefs, have 
made him render her that faithful service which a 
grateful State is glad to recognize and indorse. 

Our numbers and enthusiasm are proof that there is 
no apathy within the Democratic ranks, but confidently, 
with a firm belief in the justice of its cause, our party 
means to renew the fight and repeat the victory of 1890. 
It believes that victory was the deliberate, emphatic 
judgment of Massachusetts, that the time has come 
when war taxation on the consumption of the people 
should be reduced ; that special selfish interests should 



394 SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 

not stand in the way of this benefit to both her people 
and her industries, nor shall they control for their sole 
benefit the taxing power of the Nation. There is a 
question of morals as well as of markets involved in 
the issue. There is a question, too, of self-government 
as well as of self-interest dependent upon its decision. 
I believe the conscience of Massachusetts, as well as 
her pocket, sustains the Democratic policy. 

Her judgment of 1890 was equally emphatic that the 
time had not come to impose upon her other burdens 
through Federal law, and to take from her the right 
she has exercised from the foundation of her govern- 
ment to control her own elections. 

McKinley bills and Lodge bills were both condemned 
in her decision. So, too, she declared, in that Demo- 
cratic victory, for sound and honest money, which was 
to be upheld and fought for by her representatives, no 
matter what the exigency of personal or party necessity. 

Upon this point she has already reaped a just reward, 
which ought to be a source of pride to all her people. 
In place of Republican representatives from this State, 
who, against her convictions and their own, at their 
party's dictation, gave their votes for the danger- 
ous silver legislation of 1890, and actually the votes 
necessary to carry it, she found Democratic repre- 
sentatives true to her and their own convictions, ex- 
ercising an equally potent influence for the defeat of 
legislation of a like character and equally dangerous. 
As Massachusetts appreciates faithful services ren- 
dered her, admires ability, pluck, and patriotism in 
public life, so I think she will reward with her indorse- 
ment her faithful Democratic representatives, espe- 
cially the member from this district, who bore so 
honorable and conspicuous a part in the contest. 

The issues upon which Massachusetts passed judg- 



SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 395 

ment in 1890 are again the principal National issues 
between the parties in 1892, and so it becomes neces- 
sary to re-argue them. 

I am aware that there are also certain State issues 
in this election which it will be my pleasure and duty 
to discuss, especially those issues necessarily involved 
in the nomination of my distinguished opponent. 

The work and character of the administration of the 
last two years are submitted to the people for their 
indorsement. I gladly invite their fullest scrutiny and 
criticism, and especially the attention of the Repub- 
lican party, which a year ago was so free and petty in 
its attacks. 

The administration, in its suggestion of many 
reforms, in its exercise of the veto and appointing 
powers, in its conflicts with a Republican Legislature 
and a Republican Council, and in many other executive 
acts, gives ample grounds upon which to test its work 
and character. 

It has vetoed nine bills of a Republican Legislature, 
many of which involved important principles and 
reforms, such as the right of local self-government, 
responsibility in executive office, the defence of the 
game-laws of the Commonwealth against special legis- 
lation for a special interest, reform in the building 
of State institutions, and the sale of stock by railroad 
corporations at public auction. Were these vetoes 
right ? 

What says the Republican party ? 

Thus far, only silence. 

The administration has made hundreds of important 
executive appointments, — more in number and impor- 
tance, I believe, than in any like period since the Avar. 
How has it exercised this, perhaps the greatest power 
of the Governor ? 



396 SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 

What says the Republican party ? 

Thus far, only silence. 

It has suggested many reforms, some of which have 
become law. It has recommended measures to guard 
the purity of elections, of the ballot, and of legislation; 
other measures in the interest of the great masses of 
the people, such as the abolition of the poll-tax quali- 
fication, of the sweating system, reducing the hours 
of labor for women and children, and other labor 
measures; and has suggested legislation for extermi- 
nating the lobby, abolishing free passes on railroads 
and the sale of franchises, for extension of local self- 
government, and the passage of general laws in place 
of special legislation. 

What Says the Republican party about these sugges- 
tions ? 

Thus far, only silence. 

It has suggested reforms in our system of prison 
management and in other executive departments, and 
its suggestions have been defeated by a Republican 
Legislature. Were these reforms right ? 

What now says the Republican party ? 

Thus far, only silence. 

It has abolished some useless and incompetent com- 
missions, and sought to abolish others. Was it right 
in this ? 

What says the Republican party ? 

Thus far, only silence. 

It has sought to uphold a proper standard of official 
duty, by attempting to remove an important officer who 
was charged with using his office for personal and par- 
tisan ends. The attempt was thwarted by the oppo- 
sition of the Republican candidate for Governor and 
of the Republican Executive Council. 

Does the Republican party and its candidate still 



SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 397 

rail}' to his support ? Will they do in the State what 
they have done in the Nation, — demand partisan ser- 
vice of a public official, and reward such service with 
public office ? 

What says the Republican party on this issue ? 

Thus far, only silence. 

I have asserted, still assert, and will assert, that full 
responsibility for nominations rests with the Governor. 

I have resisted the attempt of the Republican candi- 
date for Governor and the Republican Executive Council 
to usurp this power, and to dictate nominations ; and I 
have denounced their rejection of nominees admitted 
by them to be fully qualified, but rejected because I 
would not nominate others at their dictation. I be- 
lieve that the Constitution makes one, and not ten, 
supreme executive magistrates. 

What says the Republican party and its candidate 
upon this issue ? 

Thus far, only silence. 

I am content to rest upon their silence. Until 
broken, it is the forced confession of an opponent, more 
emphatic in its commendation than the praise of any 
friend. It is, too, our opponents' condemnation of their 
own candidate and their own acts. 

But more important than the election of any State 
officer or the settlement of any State question are the 
National issues and the National campaign in which 
we are engaged. If you believe in Democratic prin- 
ciples and a Democratic administration, you can best 
give voice and emphasis to that belief by support of 
our National candidates. 

The upright, able, patriotic, and economic adminis- 
tration of a Democratic President for four years has 
given the country not only confidence in him and 
his party, but full assurance of what his election 



398 SrEECH AT DEDHAM. 

will mean, and what will be the policy of his adminis- 
tration. 

It means lifting at last the burden of taxation by 
reform and reduction of the tariff. 

It means honest and sound money, without compro- 
mise or equivocation. 

It means death to Force Bills, and new lite to the 
just and deserving, but abandoned, cause of civil service 
reform. I verily believe it means to Massachusetts 
relief to her people, growth to her industries, and the 
administration of government upon the principles of 
equality, liberty, and economy, which she has ever 
upheld. 

It certainly means rebuke to the dangerous combina- 
tion of wealth with a political party to control elec- 
tions, and to use the people's law for payment of its 
contributions and the profit of its contributors. 

I propose to-night to discuss one issue of the cam- 
paign, — the tariff question. It is, and has been, the 
most important issue since the brave message of Presi- 
dent Cleveland, and it will be until it is settled right. 

How has the Republican party met this question in 
the past ? 

In its early history up to the time of the war, it 
advocated a tariff for revenue only, and gave its support 
to the lowest tariff the country had had for generations. 
Sumner and Wilson, and substantially the whole New 
England delegation, voted for this tariff of 1857. 
That was a time when industries were being founded, 
were infants, and needed, if ever, the right of taxation 
of the people for their support. 

Then came the war and the necessity for larger 
revenue; so the Morrill tariff. Then came higher 
internal taxes, and, to offset their burden, the higher 
tariff laws of 1862 and 1864. 



SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 399 

The author of these tariffs, and all the Republican 
leaders, distinctly declared that they were revenue tar- 
iffs, and should be reduced when the necessity for the 
greater revenue of the war was ended. Mr. Morrill, 
the author of a higher tariff, said on May 8, 1860: 

'' There are no duties proposed on any article for the 
simple purpose of protection alone. The highest duties in 
the bill are proposed for the purpose of revenue. The 
manufacturers might get along with lower duties, but we 
require the revenue." 

On June 2, 1864, he said of the high protection of 
that year : — 

" This is intended as a Avar measure, and we must as such 
give it our support. In making an estimate of the effect of 
such a war tariff as is now proposed, it is important that 
we should bear in mind that as Ave increase taxes on any 
article, Ave diminish the number of those Avho Avill be able 
to consume it." 

In 1870 this author of high tai'iff again said : — 

" It is a mistake of the friends of sound tariff to insist on 
the extreme rates imposed during the Avar, if less Avill raise 
the necessary revenue." 

Senator Allison, another Republican leader, on 
March 24, 1870, said : — 

" The tariff of 1846 (a very low tariff), though confessedly 
and professedly a tariff for revenue, was, so far as regards 
all the great industries of the country, as perfect a tariff as 
any that Ave have ever had." 

Here are the authors of high tariff laws and Repub- 
lican leaders distinctly and positively declaring in 
favor of tariffs for revenue only, stating that their own 
high tariffs were for this purpose, and averring that they 



400 SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 

were ample to protect all interests. Yet now they de- 
nounce unsparingly such doctrine when uttered by Demo- 
cratic lips. Next, the Republican party in its platforms 
and the declarations of its leaders said that the high 
tai-iff should be reduced. That was its direct declara- 
tion in the platform of 1868, and its indirect declaration 
in the platform of 1884. That is what Mr. Lodge meant 
and said when, speaking for his Convention in 1884, he 
declared in favor of " freeing entirely those great neces- 
saries of life which enter into the consumption of every 
household. " He calls that free-trade now, and denounces 
it. The Republican Tariff Commission of 1882, made 
up entirely of the representatives of the highly pro- 
tected industries, after a most thorough examination of 
the whole question made a report in which it spoke of 
the "excessively protective period of the late war," 
declared that "a substantial reduction of tariff duties 
is demanded, not by a mere indiscriminate popular 
clamor, and is necessary not only as a due recognition 
of public sentiment, but as a measure of justice to 
consumers, and one conducive to the general industrial 
prosperity," and recommended a reduction of from 20 
to 25 per cent. That was the time when the Republican 
party was talking tariff reform and tariff reduction. 

Next came the breaking by the Republicans of their 
pledges by opposing every attempt to reduce the tariff, 
and their defeat of the recommendations of their Tariff' 
Commission and of their own leaders. Instead of the 
reduction recommended in 1882, we got the higher 
tariff of 1883. Instead of reducing the tariff 20 or 25 
per cent, they opposed the reduction of 10 per cent in 
the Morrison Bill. Then they opposed the reduction of 
half that amount in the Mills Bill. Then they opposed 
every effort to get free wool and free raw materials, or 
to put the tariff on a revenue basis. 



SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 401 

They demanded that the tariff should be revised and 
reduced at the hands of its friends. It got into the 
hands of its friends in 1882, and came out higher in 
1883. It got into the hands of its friends again in 
1888, and came out with the McKinley Bill of 1890, — 
the highest tariff we have ever had. 

Then, having satisfied the demands of selfish inter- 
ests, the Republican party declared the tariff question 
was settled, that New England's demand for free raw 
materials must go unanswered, and that she must be 
content if Ohio and Pennsylvania are. 

Its record, then, is, first, cordial approval and support 
of the lowest tariff almost we have ever had, and a 
tariff for revenue only ; second, raising the tariff" during 
the war confessedly for revenue only ; third, repeated 
promises and pledges to reduce it; fourth, opposition 
to every attempt at reduction, and the constant raising 
of it still higher; fifth, demand that the question be 
considered settled; and now at last that party, with 
broken pledges and forgotten principles, unmindful of 
the rebuke of 1890, boldly declares that the taxing 
power through the tariff can and shall be used, not for 
revenue, but for protection only, to the annihilation of 
revenue ; not for public purposes, but private interests ; 
not for the benefit of the people, but to enrich the few. 

The issue becomes, then, not merely an economic 
question, but one as to the rightful use, the scope, and 
the pon'er of government. 

The United States Supreme Court on this very ques- 
tion in the famous Topeka case declared that "to lay 
with one hand the power of the government on the prop- 
erty of citizens, and with the other to bestow it on 
favored individuals to aid private enterprise and build 
up private fortunes, is none the less a robbery because 
it is done under the forms of law and is called taxa- 

26 



402 SPEECH AT DEDIIAM. 

tion. " It added, "There can be no lawful tax which is 
not laid for a public purpose." 

Judge Cooley, the leading authority in the country 
on constitutional law, declares : " Constitutionally, a 
tax can have no other basis than the raising of revenue. 
A tax on imports, therefore, the purpose of which is 
not to raise revenue, but to discourage and indirectly 
prohibit some particular import for the benefit of some 
home manufacture, may well be questioned as being 
merely colorable, and therefore not warranted by consti- 
tutional principles. " 

I see that Mr. McKinley, who takes exactly the 
opposite view, in all his speeches in Massachusetts 
has cited Webster as an authority for his position, 
and has repeated this question: "Is Governor Russell 
a safer expounder of the Constitution than Daniel 
Webster ? " 

I cite the great authority of Webster for my position. 

Edward Everett, who ought to have known Webster's 
views, in his memoir of him in his published Works of 
Daniel Webster, says: "In 1820, in discussing the sub- 
ject [protection] in Faneuil Hall, he [Webster] argued 
that if the right of laying duties for protection were 
derived from the revenue power, it was of necessity 
incidental, and on that assumption, as the incident 
cannot go beyond that to which it is incidental, duties 
avowedly for protection, and not having any reference 
to revenue, could not be constitutionally made." 

That I understand to be the Democratic doctrine. 

Every effort to reduce the tariff has met not only 
opposition from the Republican party, but has led to 
its raising false alarms and false issues. The Repub- 
licans denounce the Democratic attempt to reduce the 
tariff 10 per cent as free-trade, notwithstanding the 
Report of their Commission in favor of its reduction of 



SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 403 

from 20 to 25 per cent. They denounce the Mills Bill, 
with its 5 per cent reduction, as free-trade. Every 
attempt of the Democratic party to give the manufac- 
turers of the country the great boon of free raw ma- 
terials they call free-trade. And now, when our party 
repeats the demand it has made for twenty years, that 
the tariff shall be for revenue and for public purposes, 
again the demand is called free-trade, though the ablest 
Republican statesman and leader, Senator Sherman, 
once declared that such revenue tariff could not fail 
to give all the protection necessary. 

But the people are used to these false alarms. They 
answered them in 1890, and will answer them again in 
1892. 

Never yet has the Democratic party in power 
attempted to reduce the tariff without the most con- 
servative regard for all the interests of the country. 
Over and over again it has shown by its acts and votes 
and declarations its policy of tariff reduction, and de- 
clared that it was to be upon the line of free raw 
materials and cheaper necessaries of life. 

This was shown in Mr. Cleveland's message of 1887, 
in the Mills Bill, in repeated votes in the Senate for 
amendments to the McKinley Bill, and again in the 
Democratic platform of 1892, where it indorsed the 
effort of the Democratic party to modify the tariff " in 
the direction of free raw material and cheaper manufac- 
tured goods that enter into general consumption." 

That, too, is the position taken by our party in the 
last House, which was overwhelmingly Democratic. 
No effort was made to establish free-trade, but every 
suggestion of legislation was on the basis of free raw 
materials and cheaper necessaries of life. If reducing 
tariff taxes on the necessaries of life is free-trade, 
where, in Heaven's name, stood Mr. Lodge and his 



\ 



40i SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 

party in 1884, when he declared in favor of "freeing 
entirely the necessaries of life" ? 'If giving free wool, 
coal, ore, copper, and tin to our great industries, with 
a protective tariff on their finished products, is free- 
trade, I mistake the sentiment of New England if it 
does not demand this benefit, under whatever name it 
comes. -^ 

To-day the Republican party stands just where it 
placed itself in 1888. It declares the basis of the 
government to be privileges, not rights. It has substi- 
tuted selfish interests for its character and its con- 
science ; it stands for them rather than the people. 
It wins the enthusiastic support of the wealthy few, 
who control it for their profit, but it has turned against 
the many, who demand equality before the law, and 
the use of the people's power only in the people's 
interest. 

The first effect of the present high protective policy of 
the Republican party is to raise prices and make the cost 
of living higher than it would be but for such tariff. 
This is its purpose and object. It is intended to shut 
out competition, to protect from competition by law 
as a trust does by mutual agreement, and to prevent 
people buying where they could buy the cheapest. 
Either protection is useless, or it must work through 
higher prices. 

•John Sherman declared in 1867: "I said it, and I 
stand by it, that as a general rule the duties paid on 
imports operate as a tax upon the consumer." 

Mr. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years in Congress," 
says, speaking of the increase of duties on imports by 
the Tariff Act of July 14, 1862, that it " shut out still 
more conclusively all competition from foreign fabrics. 
The increased cost was charged to the consumer." 

John Quincy Adams long ago declared: "The duty 



SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 405 

constitutes the price of the whole mass of the article 
in the market. It is substantially paid on the article 
of domestic manufacture, as well as on that of foreign 
production. " 

Mr. McKinley himself, in the report introducing this 
very bill, said it was not the intent of the bill "to 
further cut down prices," that the people were "already 
suffering from low prices," and would not be satisfied 
"with legislation which will result in lower prices." 

President Harrison, knowing that the effect of the 
bill would be to raise prices higher than they otherwise 
would be, tried to discount it by saying it was a cheap 
man who wanted a cheap coat. 

What a striking contrast is this to that glorious 
inscription put by the working-men of England on the 
monument of Peel, who had given to the country the 
great blessing of a reduction of tariff taxation ! They 
said in that inscription, as the crowning glory of his 
life, "he gave the people cheap bread." 

Let me say of the recent report of the Senate on this 
question of prices that I believe the report is perfectly 
fair and reliable, because it was made after a thorough 
examination of witnesses who could be cross-examined, 
and was not founded, as many State reports are, on facts 
furnished by interested persons, without opportunity for 
any cross-examination. It certainly is more reliable 
than any Peck report, made by an officer who in the 
space of three months absolutely contradicts his own 
earlier report, and then destroys the official data upon 
which it is based, and finally turns up in court charged 
with crime in connection with it. 

The conclusion of the Senate report is that at the end 
of three years, the average price of the 214 articles in- 
vestigated was a fraction of 1 per cent lower than in 
1889, but during three-quarters of that period these 



406 SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 

l)rices have been higher, ranging from .61 per cent to 
3.57 per cent. These articles the committee chose as 
a fair average of general consumption, and a fair test 
of prices generally. 

Assuming such general consumption to be, as statis- 
ticians agree, about $10,000,000,000, the net increase 
of prices during the period examined (which was the 
period of the McKinley Bill and tariff agitation) 
amounted to *285,000,000. This was part of the 
burden on the people of McKinley tariff taxation. 

No one doubts that all the forces of civilization, with 
every improvement in machinery and skill and trans- 
portation, are constantly lighting for lower prices. 
No one doubts that they can in course of time reduce 
prices, notwithstanding the protective tariff. No one 
claims that the tariff tax can wholly offset and defeat 
the progressive reduction of prices which these forces 
accomplish ; but just as surely as they fight for lower 
prices, a protective tariff tax stands in their way, 
fighting for higher jjrices. 

This is strikingly shown in a detailed examination 
of the prices of these very articles examined and re- 
ported on by the Senate committee. Such examination 
of these 214 articles discloses that the majority have 
risen in price in those cases where the McKinley Bill 
increased the duty, that the majority have declined in 
those cases where the duty was left unchanged or was 
lowered, and that the general tendency of prices of all 
the articles was towards a lower level prior to the 
enactment of the bill. 

In proof of this tendency, Senator Carlisle, in his 
speech of July 29, 1892, said : — 

" Mr. Grosvenor, a gentleman whom this committee must 
indorse, because it had him employed for some time to assist 



SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 407 

in collecting prices, made an investigation, June 1st, 1889, 
which showed that prices of commodities in this country 
had declined 14 per cent during the eighteen months next 
preceding the beginning of this investigation. Fortunately 
it so happened that our investigation began the day that 
his investigation closed ; and while his investigation showed 
that during the eighteen months covered by it the prices of 
commodities declined in this country 14 per cent, all the 
senator from Rhode Island can now show is that after 
twenty-four months of unnecessarily high prices, the cost 
of living had declined .64 of 1 per cent." 

The direct effect of this bill upon retail prices can 
be seen with great distinctness in a table of these 214 
articles, the very ones selected and investigated by the 
Senate committee, showing the fact of increased or 
diminished price of each article side by side with the 
increased, unchanged, or lower tariff of the McKinley 
Bill. An examination of this table shows that 75 of 
the 214 articles embraced within it increased in price, 
while 139 articles decreased in price. Of the 75 in- 
creasing in price, 54, or 72 per cent, had their duties 
increased by the McKinley Bill, while of the 139 arti- 
cles decreasing in price, 92, or 6Q per cent, had their 
duties unaltered or reduced by that bill. 

This table when analyzed further shows emphatically 
that prices of commodities were still tending towards a 
lower level, as Mr. Grosvenor had shown they were 
prior to the Senate investigation. To observe this ten- 
dency, an examination of those articles upon which 
there has been no change of tariff duty by the McKinley 
Bill should be made. The number of these articles is 
82; and Q5, or 79 per cent, of them fell in price, while 
only 17, or 21 per cent, increased in price. Thei^e were 
31 articles upon which the tariff duties were decreased. 
Of these, 27, or 89 per cent, fell in price, and 4, or 11 per 



408 SPEECH AT DEDHAM. 

cent, increased in price. There were 101 articles upon 
which tariff duties were increased. Of these, 54, or 53 
per cent, increased in price, and 47, or 47 per cent, 
decreased in price. 

Here, then, is presented in the clearest possible 
manner the effect which the McKinley Bill has had 
upon prices. The tendency of prices has been towards 
a lower level, as an examination of the articles un- 
changed in duty by the McKinley Bill shows. This 
tendency is emphasized in a marked manner in those 
cases where the duty has been decreased, 90 per cent 
of these articles decreasing in price. But in the cases 
where the duty was increased, the tendency of prices 
towards a lower level is entirely overthrown, and it is 
found that a majority have increased in price. 

This exhibit is of prices at the end of the period it 
investigated. The Senate report shows they were even 
higher at every other time covered by the investigation. 



SPEECH 

AT MALDEN, OCT. 10, 1892, THE FORCE BILL. 

MANY times during the past few weeks it has been 
my privilege to represent and to speak for the 
Commonwealth, and to receive the cordial greeting 
which loyal citizens ever give to her. But to-night I 
come here representing a great political party, to plead 
its cause, and to fight its battle ; and your hearty wel- 
come is gratefully received as evidence of your unflinch- 
ing loyalty to Democracy, your earnest interest in its 
work and principles, and your firm determination to 
carry them to victory. 

I reciprocate your welcome, and join in your enthu- 
siasm for our party. May I express the earnest hope 
that that enthusiasm means the triumph of your bril- 
liant candidate for Congress [Dr. William Everett], who, 
answering the call of duty and of principle, has turned 
from the rest and peace of a scholar's life to enter the 
turmoil of political struggle that he might serve the 
people's interests, the cause of truth and justice. He 
brings to the contest character, conscience, and con- 
victions, with learning, undaunted courage, and unsel- 
fish purpose. His ability, pluck, and vigor carried our 
party against heaviest odds almost to victory two years 
ago. Confidently, now. Democracy, honored by his 
candidacy, expects the further honor of his service as 
her representative. 

I am glad to come to the district represented by 
Mr. Lodge to discuss to-night a question in which he 



410 SPEECH AT MALDEN. 

juid his party have shown the keenest interest until 
very recently, — a question which is one of the most 
important issues of the campaign, but of which the 
Republican party to-day is very shy. 

The issue is presented in the bill framed by the noto- 
rious Davenport of New York, futhered by Mr. Lodge, 
and known as the Force Bill. As that bill interferes 
largely with the control Massachusetts for one hundred 
years has had over her elections, as it proposes to hand 
this control over to the National Government, but really 
means to hand it over to the Republican party, the ques- 
tion is important. 

It seems to me a proper place to discuss it in the 
district of its nominal author and its uncompromising 
iind constant defender, — constant until this year; but 
now he is silent. 

We remember that two years ago he claimed that this 
was the most important issue and measure before the 
country. Speaking in this very town on October 27, 
1890, Mr. Lodge declared : " I am proud of my connec- 
tion with the bill, and I ask for your votes, not merely 
for myself or my party, but for the cause in which I 
am engaged, which is righteous work, more important 
than the tariff, or the Silver Bill, or anything else before 
Congress." He declared that the tariff question was 
settled ; and as it had been settled in his way, evi- 
dently he was anxious to have elections so controlled 
by his party through his Force Bill that the tariff 
could not be disturbed. 

Mr. Watterson graphically described the connection 
between the McKinley Bill and the Lodge Force Bill 
when he said : " With one the Republican party ties the 
hands of the Nation, while with the other it skins it. " 

Mr. Wilson, the Chairman of the Democratic 
National Convention, rightly declared: — 



SPEECH AT MALDEN. 411 

" We are not deceived as to the temper of the Eepublicau 
party. We are not in doubt as to its principles. Having 
taxed us for years without excuse and without mercy, it now 
proposes to disarm us of all powers of resistance. 

"Eepublican success in this campaign, whether we look to 
the party jjlatform, the party candidates, or the utterances of 
the party leaders, means that the people are to be stripped 
of their franchise througli force bills, in order that they 
may be stripped of their subsistence through tariff bills." 

I believe that the people are as anxious now as they 
were two years ago to know the position of Mr. Lodge 
and his party upon this question. 

An examination of his bill shows that it practicallv 
gives to Republican Federal officers control of elections, 
including the registration of voters, conduct of the elec- 
tion, and the count of the vote ; and finally provides for 
Republican canvassing boards to revise the returns and 
to issue election certificates. 

It deals nominally with National elections; but as 
the State election comes at the same time, its power 
necessarily covers both. I do not believe that Massa- 
chusetts needs or wants this Federal control of her 
elections. She certainly does not want it in partisan 
hands for partisan purposes. Let us see how this is 
accomplished. 

First, a chief supervisor is appointed for life, by the 
judge of the United States Circuit Court. As almost 
without exception these judges are Republicans, it is 
altogether likely that the chief supervisors would be of 
the same party. The chief supervisor then presents to 
the Circuit Court lists of persons for appointment as 
subordinate supervisors, and double the number required 
for the district. From the list so appointed he selects 
three for each precinct, two of them of the same politi- 
cal party. 



412 SPEECH AT MALDEN. 

A Republican judge appoints a Republican chief 
supervisor. A Republican chief supervisor prepares 
lists of subordinates, and then selects two out of 
three of such subordinates Republicans. The super- 
visors so chosen are given power to guard, scrutinize, 
and supervise elections, including naturalization and 
registration. 

In cities of over twenty thousand inhabitants they 
are to make a house-to-house canvass, on the order of 
the Republican chief supervisor. Here would begin the 
Republican campaign, to be conducted by employees paid 
from the public treasury. Then follow provisions for 
the control of the conduct of the election, including the 
challenging of voters, and the count of the vote by a 
partisan board, — provisions, too, which interfere with 
the secrecy of the ballot, with our Australian ballot 
law, and are almost certain to lead to a conflict be- 
tween National and State authority. They are just as 
certain to give an opportunity for the partisan abuse 
of power. 

Then comes the appointment of canvassing boards of 
three, two of the same political party, and of course of 
the Republican party. Those boards decide who is 
elected to Congress; and upon their decision the clerk 
makes up the roll of the House, without regard to the 
certificates sent by State officers. 

Then provision is made for the trial by partisan 
juries of all offences against the law. The juries are 
drawn by three jury commissioners selected by the 
court, but care is taken not to provide that even one 
of the commissioners should belong to some party 
other than the Republican party, or that they should 
select the juries without regard to politics. This gives 
an opportunity for just such partisan abuse of power 
as was practised in the northern district of Florida in 



SPEECH AT MALDEN. 413 

1889 by the Republican United States marshal, who 
issued the following order : — 

Jacksonville, Fla., July 5, 1889. 
C. C. KiKK, Esq., De Land, Fla., 

Sir, — You will at once confer with McBulby and make 
out a list of fifty or sixty names of true and tried Republi- 
cans from your county registration list for jurors of the 
United States Court, and forward same to H. P. Walter, 
clerk of the United States Court; and it is necessary to 
have them at once, as you can see. Please acknowledge- 
this. 

I am, yours truly, 

John R. Mizell, 

United States Marshal. 

The bill further provides that the United States 
marshals (Republicans), in conference with the chief 
supervisor (Republican), shall appoint as many deputy 
marshals as the chief supervisor thinks necessary to 
enforce the election laws. Then, if this force is not 
sufficient for Republican purposes, Federal troops may 
be placed at the polls. That is what Mr. Lodge antici- 
pated wdien he said in debate on the bill that he had 
no objection to the use of soldiers if necessary at every 
polling precinct of his district. 

Another leading Republican from Pennsylvania, Mr. 
Brosius, said in debate on the bill, June 28, 1890: 
" When passed, I am for its enforcement North and 
South, if need be, with firmness and effectiveness." 
And he added : " Every sword, every bayonet, every 
cannon, and every dollar of the Nation's wealth are 
pledged to the enforcement of every one of its pro- 
visions." 

Senator Frye, in the debate, Dec. 11, 1890, expressed 
an equal willingness, if necessary, "to put a bayonet 



414 SPEECH AT MALDEN. 

behind every ballot." The necessity would easily be 
found if the Republican party controlled the power and 
needed the votes. 

Then the bill, in order that no hostile House of 
Representatives may interfere with it, makes permanent 
the appropriations for carrying it out. Now note some 
of the objections to it. 

First, it provides for an army of office-holders at an 
enormous expense. Over two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand is a moderate estimate of the number of officers 
provided for ))y the bill, and the expense would be 
many millions of dollars. 

Second, it leads as certainly to corruption as it does 
to gross partisanship. All the "floaters" could be 
made deputy marshals at five dollars per day, and the 
chief could assign them to nominal duties. 

Third, it surrounds the polls with paid agents of the 
Republican party, and authorizes the use of the army 
at the polls. We have had some experience of this in 
the Southern States. We have seen there United 
States troops at the polls and in the halls of legislation. 
Massachusetts has uttered her indignant and non-par- 
tisan protest against such action. She felt the danger 
from it to her as well as to Louisiana. " The Cradle 
of Liberty " rang out the warning that Federal inter- 
ference with elections in a State, and Federal soldiers 
directing the functions of a State, were a menace to 
self-Q-overnment and to free institutions; and to that 
meeting of protest in 1876 Mr. Lodge, I believe, gave 
the influence of his name and assistance. 

Fourth, it interferes necessarily with the conduct of 
State elections, and loads to conflict, as I have said, 
between State and National authority. 

Fifth, it drags the judiciary into politics, and may 
make it part of the Republican machine, and under the 



SPEECH AT MALDEN. 415 

control of a Republican chief supervisor of elections. 
We have had some experience of this, too, with the 
electoral commission of 1876, with the partisan orders 
of Republican judges in the South, and with the judi- 
cial release of the chief manipulator of the Republican 
corruption fund of 1888. The confidence of the people 
in their judiciary ought not to be impaired by asking 
judges to become partisans, and to be made responsi- 
ble for the partisan acts of partisan officers. 

Sixth, it may interfere with the secrecy of the ballot 
and the reforms accomplished by our Australian ballot 
law. 

Seventh, it practically hands over to the Republican 
party, backed by Federal power, the right to canvass 
voters, register them, challenge them, count their 
votes, and certify the result of the election. The 
people prefer to do this themselves. They have not 
entire confidence in the Republican party, since it by 
gross fraud, and through just such agencies as the 
Lodge Bill creates, seized the Presidency in 1876. 
Recent events, too, in Montana, New Hampshire, and 
Connecticut remind us of their abuse of political power 
and their willingness to override the will and votes of 
the people in order to get and retain office. 

The crime in the election of 1876 was followed by 
the scandals in the election of 1888. At last the 
Republican party, facing the fact that the people 
have lost confidence in them, their methods, and their 
selfish policy, seek to devise some means to override 
the people's will and defeat their free choice. 

Eighth. Lastly, the Force Bill, changing the practice 
of one hundred years, tells the States that they cannot 
be trusted to regulate and control their elections, and 
so this power must ])e taken from them. That bill says 
to Massaclmsetts ; "The Republican party mistrusts 



41(3 SPEECH AT xMALDEX. 

your fairness and honesty in elections. You must 
surrender the right you have always had to control 
them, and give over this right to the National Govern- 
ment, to be exercised by Republican officials aided by 
Federal soldiers. " 

The bill is an insult to the State and a blow at self- 
government. I do not wonder that the Republican 
senator. Teller, whose vote was influential in defeat- 
ing the measure after it had passed the House, thus 
described it : — 

" Two years nearly have elapsed. I have read that bill 
with care and attention more than twenty times. I have 
read it again in the light of calm consideration, and I re- 
peat, that if it were presented to me now, with the question 
of my support or party dismissal, I should not vote for the 
bill. A more infamous bill, in my judgment, never passed 
the threshold of the Senate. Avowedly in the interest of 
good government, it was instigated, in my judgment, by men 
whose interest was in preventing a free expression of the 
voters at the polls." 

The people are always jealous of their right of self- 
government. They know the further political power 
is removed, the less control they have of it. To be self- 
government, it must be kept within their reach. The 
control they exercise must be through their elections. 
When deprived of the right to control them, or when 
this right is put into partisan hands, self-government 
is put beyond their reach. 

The Republican party stands thoroughly committed 
to this Force Bill. Not only by the declarations and 
acts of men like Mr. Lodge and Speaker Reed, who 
declared, "We must cut loose from State elections and 
do our own registration, our own counting, and our 
own certification," but it stands committed by the 



SPEECH AT MALDEN. 417 

recommendation of its President, and by repeated dec- 
larations in its National and State platforms. 

Its National Convention this year again committed 
the party thoroughly to the support of the Force Bill ; 
and almost without exception its State Conventions 
have pledged the party to its support. 

But Republican advocacy does not rest on pledge and 
declaration alone. Under the leadership of Mr. Lodge, 
by the coercion of Speaker Reed, and through the 
urgency of a Republican President, the law passed 
a Republican House, and was defeated in the Senate 
only because the conscience of a few Republicans rebelled 
against it. 

Just as emphatically the Democrats stand opposed 
to this measure, and have shown their opposition by 
declaration and pledge, and by their united votes in 
Congress. 



27 



SPEECH 

AT NEWBURYPORT, OCT. 14, 1892, UPON THE TARIFF, 
ESPECIALLY IN ITS RELATION TO TRUSTS. 

I PROPOSE to-night to consider with you the tariff 
question, and to begin by pointing out some of 
the evils of a high-tariif protection. I maintain, first, 
that it raises prices and the cost of living higher than 
they otherwise would be, and to that extent it is a 
burden which enters into every home and is felt by 
every individual. This is clearly shown by the official 
declaration of Mr. McKinlcy, the author of the bill, 
in his report submitting it to Congress. Speaking for 
his committee, he said : " We have not been so much 
concerned about the prices of the articles we consume 
as we have been to encourage a system of home pro- 
duction," etc. 

No, sir, you were not concerned about prices to con- 
sumers, but you were concerned about privileges and 
profits to special interests. He further said in that 
report: "We have not believed that our people, 
already suflering from low prices — " Mark that ex- 
pression, "suffering from low prices!" He speaks of 
it as a calamity, like the cholera or the yellow fever. 
Do people suffer from low prices ? Does the head of a 
famil}^ earning his 11.50 per day, with a half-dozen 
little ones to support, suffer Avhen coal is $1 a ton less, 
or flour $1 a barrel cheaper ? I say that that phrase is 
an insult to the people of this country. 



SPEECH AT NEWBURYPORT. 419 

Now notice how he continues : " AVe have not believed 
that our people, already suffering from low prices, 
can or will be satisfied with legislation which will 
result in lower prices. " That is to say, the McKinley 
Bill was not concerned about high prices. It believed 
the people were suffering already from the calamity of 
low prices, and that they would not be satisfied with 
legislation which would lower them ; and so this 
"•great" and "beneficent" measure of Mr. McKinley 
is made the law of the land to remedy this evil, to stop 
this calamity, and to stand as a permanent obstacle in 
the way of lov.^er prices. 

Speaking again after the passage of his bill, and prac- 
tically admitting increase of prices as one of its effects, 
but trying to avoid its consequences, Mr. McKinlc}' 
said, Oct. 14, 1890, in his speech at Kalamazoo : " Well, 
now, they say you would have things cheaper if you 
only had a Democratic revenue tariff. Cheap! I never 
liked the word. ' Cheap ' and ' nasty ' go together. 
This whole system of cheap things is a badge of 
poverty; for cheap merchandise means cheap men, 
and cheap men a cheap country ; and that is not the 
kind our fathers builded. " 

It no doubt is true that other influences are con- 
stantly working for cheap prices, and may accomplish 
this result, notwithstanding the opposition of a high 
tariff. This truth has often been recognized. For ex- 
ample, Senator Plumb of Kansas, in the debate on the 
McKinley Bill, Aug. 1, 1890, said: "The whole ten- 
dency of civilization is [towards] the reduction of the 
prices of everything which results from human labor; 
and to claim that the tariff has been the sole or the main 
factor in the reduction of prices of manufactured goods 
is to ignore all the forces of civilization. The Ameri- 
can people are entitled to have cheap goods if competi- 



420 SPEECH AT NEWBURYPORT. 

tion can bring that about." He adds: "When is the 
time coming when the people at large can get some of 
the benefit out of tlie establishment of these industries ? 
Just as fast as we get to that point where we may 
expect that natural competition will do its work, and 
prices will go down to the consumer, these peo})le come 
in and say we need more duties ; and up the duties go, 
whereby the progress of prices downward is arrested. 
I say that the people of the United States ought to 
have their innings some time, and I think that time 
has come now." 

He was right. In three months the people had their 
innings, and gave his party the most stinging and 
deserved defeat ever given a party in this country. 
The people still hold their innings, and mean to make 
some more base-hits and home-nms in this election. 
No wonder an indignant people, finding the declaration 
of the author of this bill to be true, and that its pur- 
pose was not for their interests, but for the interest of 
the few and the wealthy, rose in their wrath at the 
first opportunity, and condemned Mr. McKinley, his 
l)ill, and his party. 

I propose to-night to turn to another phase of the 
tariff question, and show you how it has surely led to 
the formation of trusts, which are raising prices, re- 
ducing production, and lessening the amount of work 
and wages. 

The tariff accomplishes this, first, by excluding com- 
petition from without. It is meant to do this. 

Senator Hawley in debate declared its purpose when 
he said he wanted a Chinese wall a hundred cubits 
high built around this country. The Republican plat- 
form of 1888 officially declared the policy of the Repub- 
lican party to be to check imports; and the McKinley 
Bill afterwards was framed for the purpose of excluding 



SPEECH AT NEWBURYPORT. 421 

anything which was produced here, or whose production 
could be forced here. 

The tariff, having excluded competition from with- 
out, gives the opportunity to the trust to come and 
shut out competition from within. That is what 
Senator Plumb meant when he declared it to be the 
"shelter of trusts," and "in a very large measure of 
great impositions upon the American people in the 
matter of the price of manufactured goods." And 
later, with an honest indignation at the injustice it 
was workino-, he declared : " The manufacturer in- 
sists that he will not take any chances; and so the 
Carnegics and Joneses of Pittsburg, and the Dolans 
and Dobsons of Philadelphia, have prospered and grown 
rich beyond the dreams of avarice, at the expense of the 
people of the United States. " 

And another shining light of the Republican party, 
Congressman Butterworth, of Ohio, declared on May 14, 
1890, that "the manufacturers and the trusts get the 
protection and the profits of the tariff. The farmers 
get the husks and the humbug." 

The opportunity for the trust is the exclusion of com- 
petition from without. The excuse or the incentive 
for the trust is over-production, caused by a limited 
market; and both these evils are dependent upon the 
high-tariff policy of the Republican party. That policy 
tends to shut out our goods from the markets of the 
world. First, by discouraging trade with ol^her coun- 
tries. One would think such trade almost a crime, 
from the Republican denunciation of imports and 
importers, whose offence is giving the people a chance 
to buy where they wish, and on the cheapest terms, and 
whose efforts must result in an increase of trade, with 
greater exchange of products, which opens to us new 
and larger markets abroad. Next, by taxing the raw 



422 SPEECH AT NEWBURYPOET. 

material of our industries, which places us at a disad- 
vantage in the markets of the world, when we compete 
with other countries which have free raw material. 

So, while bountiful crops here and short crops 
abroad have led to a large increase of our exports of 
food, we arc not surprised to find that this Republican 
policy, which discourages trade, and so burdens our 
manufacturers, is leading to a reduction of our exports 
of manufactured goods. The United States Bureau 
of Statistics shows that the exports of manufactured 
articles from the United States for August last were 
$12,583,000, as against 1*14,814,000 in August, 1891; 
that for the first eight months of 1892 these exports 
were $99,131,000, as against 1113,717,000 in 1891. 

Yet, notwithstanding this burden, we can and do 
export many manufactiired products, and the very pro- 
ducts where labor is the largest item of the cost, and 
the taxed raw materials not an important part; for 
instance, watches, sewing-machines, agricultural im- 
plements and machinery, and the smaller hardware. 

So, too, where the raw material is free, we can and 
do export to the markets of the world. With hides 
free, we export leather; with rags free, paper; with 
cotton free, millions of dollars worth of cotton goods, 
all in competition with the labor of the world. But 
with wool heavily taxed, we hardly export a pound of 
carpets or of woollen goods. 

It is not high wages, but high cost of the raw mate- 
rial which handicaps us in the world's competition. 
Our high wages are more than made up by the efficiency 
and skill of our labor. Many a manufacturer has so 
contended, agreeing with Mr. Farquhar, president of 
one of the largest manufactories of farming imple- 
ments in the country, who declares : '' We do manu- 
facture and sell in Canada, South America, and Europe 



SPEECH AT NEWBURYPORT. 423 

many agricultural implements and machines; and 
could we have free raw material and the commercial 
advantages which free-trade would give us, America 
would become the great manufacturing emporium of 
the world." 

But the Republican party adopts the opposite policy. 
Instead of giving free raw material, it puts a high tariff 
tax upon it, and then gives the manufacturer whatever 
amount of tariff protection he wishes for his finished 
product. So we find such duties as those on copper 
and tin plates, which a Republican Congressman, But- 
terworth, in the debate on the McKinley Bill, declared 
to be " a mere gratuity and extortion. " 

Let us consider the facts about this duty on copper. 
From 1850 to 1860 copper ore was free, with a slight 
duty on copper pigs ; and all were free from 1857 to 
1860. From 1850 to 1860 the ore produced here in- 
creased tenfold, and our export of manufactured goods 
of copper and brass fourteenfold. Meanwhile our im- 
ports of these goods decreased from $330,000 to 
•$23,000. This industry then was one of those healthy 
infants described by Colonel Ingersoll, which was six 
feet tall, weighed two hundred pounds, and which did 
not need to have its cradle rocked, especially when 
it threatened to get up and knock you down if you 
stopped rocking its cradle. 

Still, it demanded of the Republican party and got 
tariff protection. In 1868 a bill was passed putting 
a tariff protection of three cents per pound upon 
copper, though against the protest of smelting com- 
panies, of ship-builders and ship-owners, and of the 
manufacturers of copper and brnss goods. It met the 
veto of the President, who declared that "the bill 
will prove detrimental to the shipping interest of the 
Nation, and at the same time destroy the business, for 



424 SPEECH AT NEWBURYPORT. 

luaiiy years so successfully established, of smelting 
home ores," etc. It was passed over his veto. And 
there resulted just what he predicted, — the death of 
smelting companies on the seaboard, great injury to 
shipping and all its dependent industries, and the send- 
ing of our vessels abroad to be coppered with our own 
copper, which there could be bought cheaper than in 
our own country. 

While the duty has since been lowered, for years we 
have seen our copper sold to the foreigner cheaper 
than it was sold to our own people. There was, and 
is, no need of tariff protection on such an article. It 
can and does lead only to one result, — a burden 
to industries and the people, and a great profit to the 
few and the wealthy. 

Let us consider as another example the tariff tax 
upon tin plates. This tax used to be 1 cent a pound ; but 
it was raised by the McKinley Bill to 2.2 cents. The 
amount at 1 cent was a burden of from $6,000,000 to 
$7,000,000 a year upon the people, and at 2.2 cents it 
amounts to over $15,000,000. 

Against the imposition of this tax came a protest 
from our canning industries, of which there are nine- 
teen hundred, employing, directly or indirectly, hundreds 
of thousands of people, from our manufacturers of tin, 
and, if their voice could be heard, a protest also from 
the 65,000,000 of people who were to pay this tax and 
feel its Ijurdens. In its favor was the demand of a few 
capitalists of Pittsburg, who wished the privilege of 
law to increase their profits at the expense of the people. 
Two years have elapsed since the passage of the Mc- 
Kinley Bill; and the industry which the Republican 
I)arty promised should grow up under its fostering care 
has been able to make but 2 or 3 per cent of our total 
consumption of tin plate, and, meanwhile, the people 



SPEECH AT NEWBURYPORT. 425 

have been paying millions of dollars as their contribu- 
tion to the burden. 

I assert and have shown that a high tariff is a 
burden to the people by increasing the cost of living, 
and a burden to our industries by limiting our market 
to a home market, and there even limiting the sales 
more than they would be with free raw material, 
because it raises the cost, and so lessens the demand 
for the product. 

Let us now see what next follows. Inevitably the 
trust. With no outlet abroad for over-production, and 
a lessened demand at home by high cost, the manu- 
facturer turns to the trust to remedy his trouble. 
Through the trust he controls and raises prices, and 
through it he controls and limits production. With 
lessened production comes less work ; and then men 
out of employment, and necessarily less wages. 

Instead of urging the manufacturer to enter the 
markets of the world, and giving him as the means to 
do it free raw material, the Republican policy compels 
him to stay at home, and invites him to form a trust. 
Protection from competition from without gives him 
his opportunity. Over-production at home or desire 
for enormous profit furnishes the incentive. 

Take one instance of such a trust, ■ — the steel rail 
trust. Notice a few facts in reference to it. 

First, a protective tariff tax of $13.44 per ton. This 
is a higher tax than the total labor cost of the steel 
rail from the mining of the ore to the time of the 
finished product. It is four times higher than the 
difference in wages here and abroad as claimed by 
the Republican party to exist in that industry. Here, 
then, is a protective duty, placed in the name of 
labor, which is more than the total wages of labor in 
the industrv. 



7 



426 SPEFXH AT XEWBURYPORT. 

Now note the next fact. This duty accomplishes its 
real purpose, and absolutely excludes all coni})ctition 
from without. Having done that, the next step inevi- 
tably follows, — the formation of a trust to exclude 
competition from within. So we find the six largest 
companies, headed by the Illinois Steel Company and 
Mr. Carnegie, with an annual capacity of nearly three 
millions of tons, formed into such a trust. 

Having effectually disposed of competition, this trust 
then determines how much profit it will extort from 
the people. For the year 1891, from February through 
December, they fixed the j)rice of steel rails abso- 
lutely at $30 a ton. Yet Mr. Carroll D. Wright, 
the United States Commissioner of Labor, in his report 
declares that the department has been jiositively in- 
formed relative to the cost of making rails in several 
of the very largest establishments in the United States ; 
and there is no shadow of a doubt in his mind that in 
these establishments the actual cost of standard rails 
is and has been for some time within a few cents of 
122 per ton at the works. This report was on facts 
gathered in 1889 and 1890, since which time the cost 
has probably fallen still further. 

Here, then, is f8 per ton profit on a cajiacity of 
nearly 3,000,000 tons fixed by a trust under shelter of 
a Repul)lican protective tariff. 

How much do you think this steel trust can afford 
to give to the Republican campaign fund in i-eturn for 
the $24,000,000 per year profit and ])rotcction which 
that party is giving to this trust ? 

The sheltering influence of a protective tariff upon 
trusts was recognized by John Sherman when he de- 
clared that the remedy for the trust was to reduce the 
tariff duty. He said on Oct. 15, 1889: — 



SPEECH AT NEWBURYPORT. 427 

" The primary object of a protective tariff is to invite the 
fullest competition by individuals and corporations in domes- 
tic production. If such individuals or corporations combine 
to advance the price of the domestic product and to prevent 
the free result of open and fair competition, I would without 
a moment's hesitation reduce the duties on foreign goods 
competing with them, in order to break down the combi- 
nation. . . . Whenever this free competition is evaded or 
avoided by combination of individuals or corporations, the 
duties should be reduced, and foreign competition promptly 
invited." 

If reducing the duty can remedy the evil, then a high 
tariff stands responsible for its existence. 

Let ns see, then, if trusts exist in highly protected 
industries. I hold here in my hand a list of one hun- 
dred and thirty-nine of such trusts, "combines," and 
monopolies, every one of them in a protected industry ; 
and in fifty-eight of them additional protection was 
given under the McKinley law. 

Is it not about time to apply John Sherman's remedy 
to these trusts ? And if it was applied, how much of 
tlie protective tariff do you think there would be left ? 
As we read this list of trusts and monopolies, it seems 
almost as if we were back in the days of the Tudors, 
and were reviving the practice which then led to the 
indignant remonstrance of a burdened people. 

The historian Hume, referring to those days, said of 
the granting of monopolies in the reign of Elizabeth : 

" She granted her servants and courtiers patents for 
monopolies, and these patents they sold to others, who 
were thereby enabled to raise commodities to what prices 
they pleased, and to put invincible restraints upon all com- 
merce, industry, and emulation in the arts. 

"It is astounding to consider the number and importance 
of those commodities which were thus assigned over to the 



428 SPEECH AT NEWBURYPORT. 

patentees, — currants, salt, iron, powder, cords, calf-skins, 
peltS; oils, cloth, potash, vinegar, sea-coal, steel, lead, tin, 
pots, bottles, glass, paper, starch, and sulphur. These are 
but a part of the commodities which had been appropriated 
to monopolies. When this list was read, a member of the 
House cried, ' Is not bread in the nuuiber ? ' 

" ' Bread ? ' said every one, in astonishment. 

" ' Yes ; I assure you,' replied he, ' if affairs go on at this 
rate, we shall have bread reduced to a monopoly before the 
next Parliament.' " 

Then we read furtlier that these monopolies were 
frequently granted, without consideration, to political 
or personal favorites, that they might grow rich out 
of the proceeds; and that little public revenue was 
reaped from them; that of £210,000 thereby levied 
upon the people, scarcely XI, 500 came into the king's 
coffers ; but still that the owners of the monopolies 
demanded that they should be upheld, because "they 
did give much employment to the king's lieges, and 
did pay much wages to his Majesty's subjects for their 
labor and in the patent operations. " As we read all 
these things it sounds as if the historian were speaking 
of to-da}', and of the cause, result, and excuse for 
McKinley high protection. 

It has been given to political favorites of the Repub- 
lican party in return for favors rendered, that they 
might grow rich out of the proceeds. It has turned 
little into the public treasury of the enormous sums 
levied upon the people. And its excuse for its enor- 
mous profits to the few has been the pretence that it 
is a benefit to labor. 

But the Democratic policy, on the other hand, offers 
our industries a field of legitimate growth and profit, 
with certain benefit to all our people. It would give 
them free raw material, with a certainty that this 



SPEECH AT NEWBURYPORT. 429 

would reduce the cost of their product, increase its 
demand at home, and open new and broader markets. 
Then there will be no necessity or excuse for the trust, 
with its burdens to the people, and especially to labor. 

Mr. Blaine, in a speech at Waterville in August, 
1890, declared that "the United States has reached the 
point where one of its highest duties is to enlarge the 
area of its foreign trade." He added: "Our great 
demand is expansion. I mean expansion of trade 
with countries where we can find profitable exchanges ; " 
and " we should be unwisely content if we did not seek 
to engage in what the younger Pitt so well termed 
' the annexation of trade. ' " 

The Democratic policy is exactly in line with this 
declaration, while high protection is absolutely at 
variance with it. 

A McKinley high tariff discourages trade, raises the 
cost of our products, taxes their material, limits the 
demand, and fosters trusts. It substitutes enormous 
profits in a limited market for a legitimate and healthy 
growth. It causes over-production, but furnishes no 
outlet for it. It burdens the people through abuse of 
the power of taxation, and makes the basis of law 
privileges instead of rights, and its controlling influ- 
ences selfish interests instead of justice, equality, and 
the public welfare. 



SPEECH 

AT LAWRENCE, OCT. 26, 1892, UPON STATE ISSUES AND 
UPON THE TARIFF IN ITS RELATION TO THE WOOLLEN 
INDUSTRY. 

I AM glad to get back to our old Commonwealth, and, 
may I add, glad to get back to the campaign in 
which the Democracy is fighting so vigorously and 
hopefully. 

Let .me to-night first consider some State matters. 
In many of my executive acts I have been at variance 
with a Republican Legislature and a Republican Coun- 
cil. I have requested my distinguished opponent to 
meet me in man fashion, face to face, to discuss these 
issues. When he failed to do this. I urged him and his 
party, who are seeking to sup{)lant a Democratic 
administration, to point out wherein it has erred, and 
to step forth and defend their partisan opposition to its 
measures and its acts. 

Thus far there has been only silence from any re- 
sponsible source. The silence of the Republican Con- 
vention and platform and candidate and leader I have 
a right to construe as a most emphatic indorsement of 
my administration. If so, it is equally a condemna- 
tion of my opponent and his party in their partisan 
opposition. Is it not about time that this ominous 
silence was broken, and some attempt at least made 
by my opponent to defend or explain his position ? 

I remember in 1890, when I was a candidate for 
Governor, the "Boston Journal," late in the campaign, 
in an editorial said that Xational questions had nothing 



SPEECH AT LAWKENCE. 431 

to do with the governorship of Massachusetts, and that 
"the questions which should be answered by those 
who urge the people of Massachusetts to make Mr. 
Russell Governor " were, " What kind of a Governor 
would he make ? What are his qualifications for the 
high office to which the Democratic party has nominated 
him ? What knowledge has he of questions of State 
policy ? " It said the burden of proof rested upon 
those who sought to make the change. I now respect- 
fully request it to apply its own test to its own can- 
didate, and to beseech him, with its characteristic 
vehemence, to address himself to some questions " which 
have to do with the governorship of Massachusetts." 
Let me call his attention to a few. 

When, in 1891, the first vacancy occurred on the 
Savings Bank Commission in this State, I reappointed 
a Republican whose term had expired, though every 
member of the board belonged to the Republican party. 
When the second vacancy occurred, in 1892, I nomi- 
nated for the office a man of experience and of superior 
(jualifications, who was indorsed by the presidents of 
banks, by Mr. Getchell, the United States Bank Exami- 
ner, and by many men of high position in financial 
circles. You admitted, Mr. Haile, in answer to my 
demand for information to be used before the people of 
this Commonwealth, that there was no objection to my 
nominee on the ground of character, fitness, or qualifi- 
cations for the office, and that you and your Republican 
associates in the Executive Council rejected him solely 
for the purpose of holding in office the member whose 
term had expired. And he was an active Republican 
politician, who, while holding the office of Bank Com- 
missioner, had been at the head of an influential 
Republican organization. 



432 SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 

I said then, as I say now, that when the power to 
confirm is used to reject nominees admitted to be fit, in 
order to compel the nomination or holding in office 
after the expiration of his term of some one else, I 
said that this was a gross usurpation of power, which 
proper respect for the dignity and privileges of my 
office demanded should be resisted. 

This issue was raised and discussed before the people 
in the campaign of last year, and by their votes the 
people sustained the position of the Executive, declar- 
ing in effect that when they elected a Governor they 
meant he should assume full executive responsibility, 
and that this should not be divided and lost between 
him and an Executive Council. 

As my administration has been faithful to the spirit 
and purpose of civil service reform, as it has, in contrast 
with Republican precedents, appointed a very large pro- 
portion of men to office who were not of its political 
faith, notwithstanding that there was scarcely a Demo- 
crat on a salaried commission in the State at the time 
of my election, the rejection, for partisan reasons only, 
by a Republican Council of nominees admitted to be fit, 
is the more unjust and inexcusable. 

You, Mr. Haile, were one of the Republican Exec- 
utive Council that repeatedly rejected a nominee foi- 
Savings Bank Commissioner admitted by you to bo 
fully qualified. I ask you to discuss this question 
before the people. It involves an important principle 
of executive responsibility. Will you, if elected, sub- 
mit to the dictation of nominees by the Executive 
Council ? Will you agree that they have the right to 
reject a proper nomination simply because they prefer 
some one else ? 

Let me direct your attention to one other State ques- 
tion which is always with us, and which your party 



SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 433 

has declared over and over again to be a most impor- 
tant question. I mean the control of the sale of in- 
toxicating liquor. 

I have tried for four successive years to get from the 
candidates of your party their views and their position 
on this question, but always without success. I have 
pointed out the shifting, contradictory, and hypocritical 
position which your party has constantly taken upon 
this question. There seems to be some clearing up 
necessary to make the people understand what is the 
position of your party. Your platform this year has 
only its usual perfunctory generalities. You can make 
it mean sometliing. As head of your party, if elected, 
you must deal with this question. You are declared 
publicly by a leading minister of this State to be an 
ardent prohibitionist, and as such he gives you his sup- 
port. Is this correct ? Do you, or do you not, believe 
in a prohibitory law ? Will you, or will you not, if 
elected Governor, either recommend or approve of a 
prohibitory law ? I believe that the people have a 
right to know from a candidate for Governor his views 
upon such public questions. As a candidate and an 
official I have given my own repeatedly upon this ques- 
tion. In this Commonwealth a party cannot expect the 
support of the people when it hides its opinion on an 
important question, and forces its candidate to main- 
tain silence upon it. 

All these questions that I have asked of my distin- 
guished opponent are about official acts and public 
matters with which he may have to deal. I have no 
wish or reason to indulge in any personal criticism. 
I share with the people of the Commonwealth a high 
opinion of his character as a man and his courtesy as 
a gentleman, and I value the pleasant friendship which 
exists between us. But these considerations should 

28 



434 SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 

not, and will not, deter me from demanding in behalf 
of the people of this Commonwealth his opinion on 
these important State matters. 

I propose next to discuss the tariff especially with 
reference to one great industry in this city, — the woollen 
industry. What is the exact position of the two parties 
on the tariff in relation to this industry? Their posi- 
tion is easily ascertained, not only from platforms and 
conventions, but by their acts and votes and bills. The 
Democratic party stands for free wool and a reduction 
of the tariff tax on the manufactured product as an 
equivalent for free wool. This position was declared 
in the message of President Cleveland in 1887, in plat- 
forms and conventions since, but better still in the 
Mills Bill of 1888, in suggested amendments to the 
McKinley Bill, and in the Free Wool Bill framed by 
the able Democratic congressman from this district, 
which passed the last Democratic House. 

There is no possibility of misunderstanding the 
Democratic position on this question, and the false 
cry of free-trade is answered by the measures which 
the Democratic party has attempted to make law. 

The Republican position is equally clear. It is shown 
in the McKinley law, which the Republicans enacted. 
Instead of free wool, they placed a higher duty on wool, 
and to meet this additional burden to the manufac- 
turer gave him a still higher duty upon his woollen 
goods. 

Because the tariff tax on wool is a burden to the 
industry, the manufacturer claims and gets additional 
duty on his goods, exactly equivalent to and measured 
by the tax on the amount of wool which enters into 
their manufacture, and even called a compensatory 
duty. 

The Democratic policy in removing entirely the tariff 



SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 435 

on wool reduces the tariff on the goods, still leaving a 
duty of 35 to 40 per cent, which is almost double the 
total labor cost of the manufactured product, as may 
be observed from the following table. ^ This table 
shows that the total labor cost is about 20 per cent of 
the cost of the manufactured article, and that the duty 
proposed by the Democratic bill is double this amount. 

The Republicans say that the tariff tax is necessary 
to make up the difference of cost of labor here and 
abroad. I ask, in the name of common-sense, if twice 
the labor cost and many times any possible difference 
in labor cost here and abroad is not sufficient 
protection ? 

Let us go a step farther in the Republican policy. 
Not only did the McKinley Bill greatly increase the 
tariff duties on woollen goods, but it discriminated 
most unjustly in raising these duties highest on the 
cheapest goods used by the masses of the people, and 
least on the finer goods used by the few and the 
wealthy. 

Now, which policy is the wiser and more for the 
interest of the people and our industries ? First, note 
that ours is about the only civilized country which 
taxes wool. France and Germany, with high protec- 
tion, as well as free-trade England, admit wool free. 
Even here there was but a light tax on wool until 
the war. 

In 1866 the woollen manufacturers asked for free 
wool and 25 per cent protection on their goods; but in 
1867 they entered into a bargain with the wool-grower 
for increased duties on wool and woollen goods, justly 
described as a bargain for the double skinning of the 
people. The wool-grower got a higher tax on wool, and 
because of it the manufacturer asked and got a higher 

1 Table omitted. 



436 SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 

tax on his goods. If this coalition had not been made, 
and the manufacturer had insisted upon free wool, 
which every one knows his industry needs, that in- 
dustry would have been placed on the same footing 
as the silk and the leather, the cotton and the paper 
industries now are, and would have reaped the same 
benefits. 

Mr. Robert Bleakie, one of our leading woollen 
manufacturers, expressed this when he declared that 
he was an ardent admirer of the Mills Bill, "because 
it proposed to give our industry free wool and open 
to it the same chances for development that were 
enjoyed by the silk, cotton, and leather industries, 
which, getting their material at the world's market 
price, have expanded and grown until they are a 
credit to our country, and do a profitable exporting 
business. All that has been possible for them is 
possible for the woollen industry under similar 
conditions." 

But the manufacturer then, as now, bending to the 
political influence of the political shepherds of Ohio, 
was afraid to assert his indei)endence, and assented to 
raising higher and higher these tariff taxes upon wool 
and woollen goods, until they culminated in the 
McKinley Bill, with duties so high that the Boston 
"Commercial Bulletin," a Republican paper, declared, 
Sept. G, 1890, that they were "simply indefensible." 

Now, what has been the result ? We produce less 
than one half the wool we use in manufacture and in 
imported goods. The wool clip of 1891 is less than 
it was seven, eight, and nine years ago. There are 
fewer sheep in this country than there were ten years 
ago. So much for the wool-raising industry, which 
this tax has undertaken to foster. Meanwhile our 
imports of wool are constantly increasing, until in 



1 



SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 437 

1891 they amounted to over 118,000,000, or in amount 
more than in any year since 1880. 

Our import of woollen goods has been steadily in- 
creasing, until in 1890 they amounted in value to 
1554,000,000, or more than any year since the war; and 
in 1891, notwithstanding the severe restrictions of the 
McKinley Bill, and its avowed object to check imports 
and destroy competition, they were in amount nearly 
i42,000,000, or more than they have been in any year, 
with five exceptions, since 1875. All these imports of 
wool and woollen goods since the McKinley Bill have 
had to pay a much higher tax, which burden falls upon 
the people as consumers. 

Meanwhile this tax upon wool has been a heavy bur- 
den on the manufacturer as well as on the consumer. 
So Mr. Whitman, the President of the Woollen Manu- 
facturers' Association, declared in 1885, in his official 
letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, when he said, 
"The European manufacturer possesses the advantage 
which would be overwhelming, if not counteracted by 
special legislation, of having the raw material of his 
manufacture free from duty. " 

He adds : " Our European competitors arc exempt 
from the direct enhancement by a duty of the cost of 
wool. " Again he declares : " They are able from the 
lower cost of their raw material to relieve themselves 
from over-production by consigning their surplus stocks 
at comparatively slight sacrifice to foreign markets, to 
which their cheapness has already introduced them ; " 
and, finally, he insists : " It needs to be better known 
that the admittedly high duties, and, on a cursory view, 
unduly high duties, on woollens are made necessary by 
the assumed necessity of protecting the domestic wool- 
growers and providing for them a profitable home 
market ; and that the manufacturers, exempted from 



438 SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 

the wool duties, would be amply content with the much 
lower range of duties provided for other branches of the 
textile industry." On this ground over seven hundred 
woollen manufacturers and dealers petitioned Congress 
in 1890 to be relieved from this duty. 

Let me point out one important effect of this duty. 
The manufacturer, shut out from getting the wool of the 
world, or compelled to pay a high price, has been forced 
to use adulterants more than ever before in the manu- 
facture of his goods, and so the people are getting more 
and more shoddy, and less and less of woollen clothing 
and other goods. 

Observe a few significant facts which show this. 
Note the remarkable increase in the shoddy mills, 
especially since 1890, as seen in the appended table, ^ 
which gives the mills by States, and shows an increase 
of 44 per cent in them since that time. 

First, the census of 1890 shows a remarkable increase 
in the use of such materials as shoddy and animal 
hair and other substitutes for wool to lessen the cost 
to the manufacturer of woollen goods. That is seen 
from the appended tables ^ in the woollen, worsted, and 
carpet industries. 

Second, in view of the increase of 44 per cent in the 
shoddv mills since 1890, it is fair to assume that since 
these tables were compiled, the use of adulterants in 
woollen manufactures has greatly increased. 

Third. One further fact. There has been a notice- 
able increase also of the import of these wool substi- 
tutes, as appears from the following table. ^ 

So that in place of pure wool, our manufacturers 
are being steadily compelled, because of this high duty 
on foreign wools, to substitute for it old rags, cast- 
off clothing, animal hair, and cotton extracts. The 
1 Table omitted. 2 Tables omitted. « Table omitted. 



SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 439 

inevitable result of such duty must be either higher 
prices or poorer quality, or both. 

The wool consumers' petition of 1890, signed by such 
men as Lyman and Metcalf, and by the proprietors of 
the Weybosset and Worumbo mills, and other large 
woollen industries, declared that "the high cost of for- 
eign wools forced the manufacturers to resort to shoddv, 
hair, and cotton to make so-called wools of. The im- 
portation of goods made by foreign manufacturers who 
have the overwhelming advantage of free selection of 
free material has been enormous." Now, what has 
been the result of this duty upon the industry ? In 
1888 the failures in the wool or woollen business were 
fifty-seven, with liabilities of $3,600,000; but in 1889 
the failures had increased to seventy-two, and the lia- 
bilities to nearly #10,500,000. 

On June 14, 1890, in the petition of the wool con- 
sumers which 1 have just mentioned, they declared: 
"" For the protection of the woollen manufacture of the 
country, and for its rescue from a most hampered and 
depressed condition, we ask for a great reduction or 
the total abolition of the duty on wool." In their opin- 
ion the woollen industry was not thriving at that time. 
On Dec. 31, 1891, the "American Wool and Cotton 
Reporter" declared, "Unfortunately for the woollen 
goods industry, that which has been predicted [refer- 
ring to the alleged benefits of the McKinley Bill] did 
not materialize, and 1891 goes down into history as a 
year of depression probably equally as intense as that 
which prevailed the two years previous." 

I do not say that special industries like your Arling- 
ton mills, which have been given the privilege of fram- 
ing a tariff schedule to suit themselves, and to tax at 
their pleasure a whole people, cannot make exceptional 
profits. I believe they can and do. But I assert that 



440 SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 

such profits, made out of the taxation of the whole 
people, are burdensome on the people, and are not dis- 
tributed to their employees, in whose name these taxes 
are laid, and that they involve a gross abuse of the 
power of taxation. 

Over and over again manufacturers and Republican 
authorities have protested against these high taxes in 
the woollen schedule. Sept. 6, 1890, the "Boston 
Commercial Bulletin," thoroughly familiar with this 
industry, speaking of the increase of these duties, 
said: "There is small wonder that the importers 
protest, and that the consumer begins to talk about 
monopolies. " 

It added : " The men responsible for the increase in 
the duties in woollens are Mr. Harpster and Mr. 
Delano, who have forced upon a weak-kneed Congress 
duties on a raw material that are simply indefensible." 

On Oct. 25, 1890, the same paper declared, "The 
wool schedule of tlie new tariff is about as absurd a bit 
of political jobbery as ever was botched." And over 
and over again that paper has repeated this opinion. 

What the woollen industry needs, and what it has 
repeatedly said it needed, is free raw material. One 
hundred manufacturers said so in 1888, and nearly 
seven hundred in 1890. Instead of this the Republican 
party has given them higher duties, with the result of 
higher prices and poorer goods, and all at the expense 
of the people. Why has this been done ? 

Senator Allison explained it in his speech on the Mc- 
Kinley Bill, Aug. 31, 1890, when he declared that the 
woollen schedule had been made up by " experts familiar 
with the trade, and by agricultural interests engaged 
in the growing of wool. " He said that the schedule was 
higher than it ought to be, but that he, with his col- 
leagues, assented to it " because this question has become 



SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 441 

a party question to a certain extent. " Yes, politics had 
got into it. The Republican party had heard the crack 
of the whip in Ohio, and Massachusetts Republicans 
yielded to that domination. The party saw an oppor- 
tunity to bind to itself a selfish interest, exact from it 
contributions, and give it in return the right to tax the 
people at its own sweet will. 

What would be the effect of free wool ? Let me 
quote a few words from manufacturers. Mr. Beach, 
a leading manufacturer of cloths and blankets in Hart- 
ford, declares, " Free wool would be a great advantage 
to us, because we could then compete with foreign 
manufacturers who get their wool free." 

Mr. Bleakie declares, " We could sell our surplus in 
foreign markets profitably if wool and all necessary 
dyes and chemicals were free, just as well as cotton and 
shoe manufacturers who both sell their surplus that 
way. " 

Mr. Ayres, of Philadelphia, a leading manufacturer 
of blankets, declares, " Free wool means to the people 
cheap, good clothes, better food, and happier homes." 

Mr. Metcalf, of Providence, the head of large woollen 
mills, said: "With free wool we have not half enough 
machinery in this country to supply the demands for 
goods. " And he added that he had promised to erect 
a new mill in case of the passage of the Mills Bill. 

Mr. Houston, the head of the Hartford Carpet Com- 
pany, said that the duties on carpet wools "protect no 
one, and tliey do of course handicap the carpet manu- 
facturers in competing with foreign products of that 
variety. Their removal would widen our markets, and 
without doubt tend to increase our exports of all 
kinds." 

Mr. S. S. Terry, speaking for the hat and cap 
industry, declares, "With cheap raw materials we 



442 SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 

should take away a large part of the hat export trade, 
not only of England, but also of Germany, France, and 
other hat-making countries. " 

Mr. Sanford, of the well-known firm of Glover, San- 
ford & Co., says: "Let us buy our wool as cheaply as 
the English manufacturer, and we take the English- 
man's market away, build up a foreign trade, give 
steady employment to our labor, run the year through 
on full time, and give our working-men three hundred 
days' work in the year." 

And such well-known manufacturers in this vicinity 
as Mr. Arthur P. Lyman and Congressman Stevens 
have strongly urged free wool as a great benefit to their 
industries. 

And so I might go on indefinitely, quoting from 
manufacturers. What is true of the woollen industry, 
and of the benefit of free wool to it, is also true of the 
benefit that would come from free coal and iron and 
tin and other raw material to our other industries. 

Why have not we got reduction of these duties and 
free raw material ? Because the few and the wealthy 
are controlling legislation and using it for their profit, 
no matter what the burden to the people or injury to 
their industries. Behind these taxes on coal and iron 
and lumber and wool and tin stands always some 
selfish interest, making profits out of the people's law. 
These selfish interests control and dominate the Re- 
publican party, giving their money to get that party 
power, and exacting in return legislation for their 
benefit. They compel it to violate its pledges, to break 
its promises, and, raising taxes higher and higher, to 
lay down as its fixed principle and policy the right to 
use the power of government, not for public purposes, 
but for selfish interests, and the power of taxation, not 
for revenue, but for private gain. 



SPEECH AT LAWRENCE. 443 

The saddest of all this is that the Republican party of 
Massachusetts, which used to be led by its Andrews 
and Sumners and Wilsons, to be devoted to high pur- 
poses and governed by conscience and patriotism, is 
now kneeling v\^ith the rest, and has surrendered itself 
body and soul to selfish interests. No wonder day by 
day there step out of it men of character and con- 
science. No wonder we hear of its MacVeaghs and 
Greshams and Cooleys and Coxes and Amherst pro- 
fessors, and thousands of others, who are influenced 
by their high character and motives, abandoning this 
party. It is fast losing its character as it attempts to 
subvert the proper purposes and power of government, 
to carry elections by money, and to pay for its success 
by taxing a people. 

The time has come when the people are going to say, 
in a voice that cannot be mistaken, that no such inter- 
ests with such a purpose and such results shall usurp a 
people's government and control a people's law. 



SPEECH 

AT FITCHBURG, OCT. 31, 1892, UPON THE TARIFF IN 
ITS RELATION TO THE IRON INDUSTRY. 

LET US consider the effect of the tariff" upon the iron 
and steel industry. Here is an industry which is 
one of the oldest in New England, and used to be one of 
the greatest and most prosperous. I am not speaking 
now of the manufacture of metallic goods and machinery, 
where fifty-six per cent of the capital invested is 
covered by United States patents, and where the raw 
material makes but a small proportion of the cost. The 
manufacturers of patented machinery and specialties no 
doubt can get along under the shelter of their patents, 
where the burden of the tariff tax on their raw material 
is comparatively slight. But I am speaking of the great 
industry which used to be represented by many blast 
and puddling furnaces, iron and steel rolling-mills, 
nail works, and shovel factories, and by heavy mill- 
wrighting, and the rolling, casting, and finishing of iron, 
and the various forms of iron and steel industries, where 
the raw material is an important clement of their cost. 

How does this great industrv stand to-dav under lii<>h 
protective tariff taxation ? Let me turn to Republi- 
can authorities for a statement of the facts, and let the 
usual Repuljlican answer, that he wlio states these facts 
is " calamity shrieking," be given by that party to its 
own utterances. 

Eirst, T quote from the Census Bulletin No. 156, of 
Jan. 18, 1802, on the manufactures of iron and steel 



SPEECH AT FITCHBURG. 445 

ill the New England States, issued by Mr. Porter, the 
Superintendent of the Census, and prepared by his 
special agents. It shows, in the first place, that iron 
and steel establishments in New England from 1880 
to 1890 decreased from 61 to 35, and the number of 
working-men employed from 8,654 to 6,645. 

Mr. Porter, in speaking of this decline, says that " it 
is due principally to local causes affecting the supply of 
raw material." After referring to the fact of an increase 
in the value of the products made, it says, " This is due 
mainly to the development of a single concern engaged 
in the manufacture of more highly finished products of 
iron and steel. While the value of the products of this 
establishment has more than doubled during the past 
decade, there has been a decline of almost one-half in 
the aggregate business of the other works during the 
same period." I believe the concern referred to is the 
Washburn & Moen Works of Worcester, which' has 
recently transferred a portion of its plant to the West, 
because of the burdens here and the greater advantages 
there. 

The census report further shows that the blast fur- 
naces in New England were reduced between 1880 and 
1890 from 14 to 10 ; that of the blast furnaces reported 
in 1890 three were idle during the entire year, and that 
the number of rolling-mills and steel works from 1880 
to 1890 diminished from 44 to 25. It adds : " Durino; 
the period covered by the 10th census the establish- 
ments, since abandoned, represent an invested capital 
of $2,932,000, giving employment to 2,262 hands." It 
further says : " Several works that have continued in 
operation have abandoned portions of their plant, and 
are now running on a smaller scale than formerly." 

It still further shows that of the machinery in the 
rolling and steel works during this period there has been 



446 SPEECH AT FITCHBURG. 

a decrease in single puddling furnaces from 220 to 48, of 
heating furnaces from 302 to 1G2, of open-hearth furnaces 
from 7 to 3, of crucible pots per heat from 202 to 188, of 
hammers from 49 to 39, and of cut-nail machines from 
801 to 311. Speaking of the 48 puddling furnaces still 
remaining, it adds : " It should be explained that the 
greater number of these furnaces were idle during the 
census of 1890, and very few of them are likely ever to 
be used again for the purpose for which they were built." 
It further states that " the re-rolling of Norwav and 
Swedish iron was formerly an important branch of the 
iron industr}^ in New England, but within the past 
decade it has dwindled to small proportions." It speaks 
of the " considerable decrease in the quantity of pig iron 
used," and so it goes on giving innumerable facts as to 
the decline of tliis industry. 

It states the reason for the decline as follows : " The 
decline in the iron rolling-mill industry of New Eng- 
land has been due chiefly to conditions peculiar to 
localitv rather than to causes affecting the industry at 
large. The rapid growth of the iron and steel industry 
in other sections of the country, where pig iron and fuel 
can be obtained at much lower cost, has gradually 
narrowed the market of most of the New England iron 
mills to the limits of local demand, and even much of 
this trade has been absorbed by manufacturers in more 
favored localities." It adds, " There is no local supjjly of 
either fuel or pig iron." 

Now, the only reason why other sections obtain their 
raw material at much lower cost is that their natural 
advantages are secured, and more than secured, to them 
by law, while our natural advantages of sea-coast location 
are neutralized by the same law which prevents, through 
tariff taxation, our getting our raw matei'ial through 
our ports. Remember, I have been quoting from the 



1 



SPEECH AT FITCHBURG. 447 

report of the political Superintendent of the Census, who 
is always trying to use his office for service to the Repub- 
lican party. 

Let us now turn to another authority, — the industry 
itself ; speaking through the principal iron and steel 
concerns in New England, and pleading for its life in its 
petition to the New England congressmen in 1889. It 
pointed out in that petition the distress in its industry, 
but most emphatically the remedy, declaring, — let me 
quote, — 

"There is no necessity for letting it die; it is only the 
existing duties on coal, ore, and crude iron that are strangling 
these industries ; and the abolition of these duties will not 
only keep it alive, but will insure it a renewed vitality, a 
large increase, and will add more largely to the wealth and 
population of New England than any possible legislation 
upon any other subject." 

Governor Ames, with his large practical experience 
in this industry, and still a staunch Republican, has 
over and over again publicly declared the same facts. 
Feb. 15, 1892, he said that " the old law [1883] was, 
and the new law [McKinley] is, in its effect, hostile to 
some of the interests of New England, — notably our iron 
industries, — in preventing her from enjoying those ad- 
vantages she ought to have from our proximity to the 
sea, thus depriving her of the opportunity to compete 
on equal terms in many ways with other sections of 
the country." Speaking of this petition, which he had 
signed, he declared, on March 31, 1892, " It would 
save to New England her iron manufactures, and I 
signed to save them." On June 20, 1892, referring to 
the decadence of the great iron industries, he said : 
" No candid man can deny that these works are closed, 
never to be reopened, and others now running must be 



448 SPEECH AT riTCHBURG. 

closed, unless the tariff laws are speedily so changed 
that raw material for them can be obtained at a price 
which will enable their proprietors to run them at a 
profit." 

Now, what has been the cause of this disaster to 
the iron and steel industry ? Just the cause stated by the 
industry itself, — the taxation of its raw material, the 
heavy tariff duties upon coal, iron ore, and pig and scrap 
iron. How came these heavy duties to be laid ? I assert 
that they were laid for special and selfish interests, for 
the benefit of the few without regard to the rights of the 
many, and for the benefit of other sections of the coun- 
try, Avith no regard to the interests or the rights of New 
England industries. 

Take, for example, the tax upon iron ore of seventy-five 
cents a ton. The Tariff Commission of 1882, made up 
wholly of representatives of protected industries, recom- 
mended that that duty be reduced to fifty cents. A bill 
with such reduction passed the House and the Senate ; 
but the bill went into a conference committee on other 
points, and when it came out, this tax was found to be 
seventy-five cents a ton, as at present. 

What was the reason for this? Let me quote the 
facts and the reason from the leading Republican au- 
thority on the tariff, Senator Aldrich. In the debate 
on Aug. 7, 1890, in the United States Senate, he said : 
" The facts were these : It is true that the bill introduced 
by the senator from Ohio in this body, and the member 
from Pennsylvania [Mr. Kclley] in the other house, 
which was identically the Tariff Commission's report, 
contained a provision fixing a rate of duty of fifty cents 
per ton upon iron ore. It is also true that the bill as it 
passed the Senate fixed the rate of duty upon iron ore at 
fifty cents a ton." And then he adds : " I think I may 
say without any violation of the secrets of the committee 



SPEECH AT EITCHBURG. 449 

[the conference committee] — because in a certain 
sense it is an open secret — that the rate was increased 
on account of tlie urgent solicitation and great array of 
facts which were presented to members of the confer- 
ence by one of its members, the then senator from 
Virginia, Mr. Mahone." Aud he further adds, " Upon 
his ui'gent request and suggestion the rate was increased 
to seventy-five cents a ton." 

This was about the time of the infamous coalition 
between the Republican party and the readjuster senator 
and repudiating Republican faction in Virginia, to carry 
out which coalition, you remember, the junior senator 
from this State threatened to hold the Senate " until the 
crack of doom." The first fruit of that coalition was 
the appointment of Mr. Riddleberger of Virginia to an 
important office in the Senate. And the second fruit of 
that coalition was the higher tariff duty upon iron ore, 
which was higher than that recommended by the Tariff 
Commission or by either house, and which, with its kin- 
dred duties, is killing a gi-eat New England industry. 
•f^The urgent demand of a single Republican senator, 
to which the Republican party yielded, gave us this 
infliction. Yielded! It was bound to yield. Is not its 
whole tariff policy founded on the principle and pledge 
that all protected interests must stand united for the 
tariff taxation each demands, and that it is not safe to 
lower a single duty, however exorbitant or unjust, for 
fear that their coalition may break, and their system be 
endano-ered ?-*- New England mav thank this coalition 
and this unjust policy for the putting out of the fires in 
her great industry, for the throwing out of employment 
of thousands of her working-men, and for the closing up 
of the great concerns which I have mentioned. ^'^ 

What injury has flowed from these taxes ? Why, 
look about you. All can recall the death or migration 

29 



450 SPEECH AT FITCHBURG. 

of such great works as the Norway Iron & Steel Com- 
pany, the South Boston Iron Works, the Hinckley 
Locomotive Works, the National Tube Woi'ks, and rol- 
lino'-mills and foundries and iron works bv the score. 

1 have quoted in this campaign the words of John 
Roach and Mr. Cramp, the great ship-builders, who have 
said that with free iron ore on the banks of the Delaware 
River they could build ships as clieaply as ships could be 
built on the Clyde ; the words of Mr. Bent, president of 
one of the largest iron and steel companies of Pennsyl- 
vania, who said that with free raw material he could lay 
down pig iron in Liverpool, and send steel rails to Lon- 
don ; the assertions of great manufacturers like Mr. Sar- 
gent of Connecticut, and many others to the same effect ; 
and nearly the whole of our iron and steel industry of 
New England has uttered the same opinion as to the 
srreat benefit that free raw material would be to it. 
-*" Now, who would be injured by reducing or removing 
these duties ? I assert that no one who has a right to 
complain or who is supplying a market which rightly be- 
longs to him. ^ The removal of these duties means that 
here in New England we shall supi)ly our own market 
from our own industries, and that that market shall 
not be seized by Pennsylvania, who gets it only by the 
privilege of an unjust law which permits her to destroy 
our industry. Never before has protection been carried 
to that extreme. It never was understood to give the 
ridit to one industry to take the life of another, — and 
that, too, not that the first might live, but fatten with 
inordinate profits on the victims it has killed. 

Let me call your attention now to those who are bene- 
fited by this tariff taxation, which is sucli an injury to 
this New England industry. The "• Iron Ago " of Jan. 30, 
1890, referring to the beneficiaries of this tariff protec- 
tion, said : " The iron ore mining companies of the Lake 



SPEECH AT EITCHBURG. 451 

Superior region are now reaping enormous profits." It 
spoke of the dividend of twenty-live per cent just 
declared by tlie Metropolitan Iron & Land Company. 
On April 30, 1890, it said : " The dividends declared in 
fifteen months by the Pittsburg & Lake Angeline Com- 
pany have amounted to $710,000, which, it will be 
observed, is considerably more than the entire capital." 

An editorial in the "Boston Herald" on Jan. 18, 
1891, gives the carefully prepared figures of Mr. N. Dale, 
of Pittsburg, showing the enormous profits earned dur- 
ing the year 1890 by some of the iron firms of Pittsburg. 
Thirty-one firms are given, whose aggregate profits 
amount to from 120,000,000 to 121,000,000. The Lake 
Superior mines and. the Pittsburg manufacturers, shel- 
tered under these high protective duties, are both reap- 
ing enormous profits, which come from taxation of the 
people, and at the same time are at the expense of the 
great iron and steel industries of New England. 

But our Republican friends say that the Democratic 
party does not propose to reduce or remove these duties, 
and so help our own industries. Over and over again 
the Democratic party has declared, in National and State 
conventions, in favor of free raw materials, — free wool, 
coal, iron, and the other raw materials which are the 
basis of our industries. Time and again it has at- 
tempted by legislation to put its declaration into law, 
starting always with free wool as the cardinal point of 
its policy. 

But Republicans ask, " When have you ever voted to 
reduce the duties on coal and iron ? " I will tell them 
when. The only time the Democratic party hnd any 
fair chance to discuss or amend the McKinley Bill, that 
party by its united action in the United States Senate 
moved and voted for amendments reducing these high 
duties. We never had a chance in the House; for 



452 SPEECH AT FITCHBURG. 

Speaker Reed drove that bill through the House with 
a coach-and-four, with scores of amendments, and 
many on this very line, pending, not reached, and not 
acted upon. But in the United States Senate, where 
there was opportunity for discussion, Massachusetts saw 
Democratic senators like Morgan of Alabama and Kenna 
of West Virginia, from great iron and coal producing 
States, voting and speaking for reduction of duties upon 
coal and iron for the benefit of New England industries, 
while our own Republican senators from New England 
were humbly bowing to the will of Pennsylvania, and 
turning a deaf ear to the demands of New England, — 
were giving their votes and their influence against the 
reduction of these very duties. 

No wonder New England, and especially Massachu- 
setts, uttered her protest in 1890 against the neglect and 
betrayal of her interests. I said then that she had a 
score to settle with these her recreant sons and repre- 
sentatives ; and hardly Avere the words spoken when 
Massachusetts settled that score with them, and told 
them that their first duty was to her rather than to 
Pennsylvania. And she repudiated those who had forgot- 
ten her, not only in their support of this high McKinley 
tariff, but in their support of such dangerous financial 
measures as the Silver Act of 1890, and such revolution- 
ary measures as the Lodge Force Bill. In all of these 
the Republican representatives from Massacliusetts have 
been Untrue to her interests and her beliefs. 

Feeling the sting of this rebuke, we see them now 
apologizing for and repudiating their action on silver 
legislation, and maintaining a cowardly silence on their 
Force Bill. It is time they began to repent, too, for 
their action on the tariff question, for just as surely as 
the conscience and the interests of this Commonwealth, 
her love of justice and liberty, repudiated Lodge Force 



SPEECH AT FITCHBURG. 453 

Bills and Sherman Silver Bills, so do they also repu- 
diate the McKinley Tariff Bill, which was conceived in 
seltishness, bought and paid for by the campaign fund 
of its beneficiaries, which has given to them profits 
wrung from the taxation of a people, and which dis- 
tinctly and emphatically threatens the institutions of our 
country and the liberties of our people. 



SPEECH 

AT HAVERHILL, OCT. 24, 1893, UPON THE POLITICAL 
CAUSES OF THE BUSINESS DEPRESSION OE 1893. 

'\7"0UR welcome makes me feel almost as if again I 
-A- were a candidate whom you were cheering on to 
victory ; but though not a candidate, 1 rejoice that at 
last relief from official engagements permits me to go 
into the thick of the fight and to raise my voice for 
our party, its principles, its honored candidates, and its 
brave and steadfast President. 

Gladly I thank the Democracy for the united, earnest 
support which for years they have given me, and I urge 
upon them to give a like support to our able leader, who, 
year in and year out, has fought the good fight and 
kept the faith. AVe are honored by his candidacy, and 
Massachusetts will be honored by his election. 

To-night I propose especially to deal with National 
matters. We are in the midst of prevailing distress 
which all deplore, but out of which one party is striving 
to make political cai)ital. It is well for us, therefore, 
to consider its cause, its remedy, where rests the respon- 
sibility for both, and the influence of our election upon 
the decision of these questions. 

I readily agree that the vote of IMassachusetts will 
have a National influence, — at least upon that brave 
and patriotic man who, as President of the whole 
country and of all the people, stands firm in the midst 
of storm, dissensions, and partisanship as the bulwark 
of the people's rights and interests, and voicing their 



SPEECH AT HxVVERHILL. 455 

demand for legislation and relief. He is listening to 
the voice of Massachusetts. He knows that the Demo- 
cratic party here in its candidate, its platform, and its 
united ranks is behind him heart and soul in the light. 
He is watching and waiting to hear in its success that 
word of good cheer and godspeed which he has a right 
to expect from this loyal Commonwealth to nerve him 
to the courageous discharge of his patriotic duty. 

What sort of encouragement will it be to him and 
the cause of repeal if Massachusetts, by the election of 
Mr. Greenhalge,^ supports, forgives, or forgets the man 
who by his vote, given for politics and not for patriot- 
ism, is largely responsible for the ills we have ? Is 
a bad law to be repealed by honoring its sponsor or 
supporter ? No, a thousand times no. Rather let the 
righteous, indignant demand of our people spend at 
least a part of its force in the punishment of such spon- 
sor or supporter, not only for present good, but for 
future warning. I repeat that the ills we have are 
caused by laws for which Mr. Greenhalge and the 
Republican party are responsible. I understand the 
issue to be whether our admitted distress is due to 
existing Republican legislation or impending Demo- 
cratic legislation. Let us see what the situation is. 

We are still living under the laws and policy of the 
Republican party. Its policy upon tariff and finance 
is still the law of the land. Our revenue is raised under 
Republican taxation ; our money is spent under Repub- 
lican appropriations. If mills are closed, remember 
that the Republican McKinley Bill is still in force. If 
honest and sound money is threatened, remember that 
the Republican Sherman Bill is still unrepealed. If 
there is an accumulating deficit of S*50,000,000 a year in 
the treasury, remember that President Cleveland left to 

1 The Republican candidate for Governor. 



456 SPEECH AT UAVERHILL. 

his successor a surplus of over a hundred millions, and 
that our income and expenses since have been deter- 
mined by the Republican party. 

These causes, many and still existing, gave ns four 
years of reckless, extravagant Republican legislation, 
with the inevitable result of panic and distress. We 
find ourselves to-day suffering from diminished revenue, 
increasing expenses, reduced gold reserve, and a flood 
of useless silver. No wonder confidence is shaken and 
business stagnant. Yes, but the Republican party, 
through its McKinley Bill, declared its purpose to shut 
off imports, and so reduce revenue. Then it set the 
precedent of the extravagant billion-dollar Congress, 
and by its laws fastened these expenses on the future. 
Then, for politics, and politics only, protection and silver 
made their coalition for taxing and skinning the people, 
and, against the unanimous protest of the Democratic 
party, passed the Sherman Bill. 

We know the excuse of the Republican party, that 
the Sherman Bill was necessary to defeat fi'ee coinage. 
We deny it, and no intelligent man believes tliis. The 
House had already defeated free coinage. Tlie Presi- 
dent, it was known, would veto it. The excuse of the 
Re})ublicans means that tliis measure could pass by a 
two-thirds vote of the Senate and the House, tliough a 
majority of the House had already declared against it. 
No, the Sherman Bill was not passed from patriotism 
to avert a danger, but from politics to risk a danger, in 
order to save the mining States to the Republican party 
and to secure the passage of the McKinley Bill. And 
so Republicans themselves have confessed. Senator 
Teller, a Republican, said in the Senate recently that 
Senator Sherman, when he reported his bill, " stated in 
the most emphatic manner that the House of Represen- 
tatives had determined in a very positive way that no 



SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. 457 

free coinage bill could pass that body." Mr. Teller 
added that, " keeping as closely within the rules of 
senatorial decency and courtesy as the circumstances 
will admit," the excuse of Senator Sherman " was an 
afterthought," and that the real purpose of the passage 
of that bill was " to maintain intact in the Northwest 
the Republican column of States." 

Senator Sherman, on July 8, 1890, in reporting his 
bill, used the language which I have quoted, and a 
Congressman from this State, in the discussion in the 
House, declared : " We Republicans want to come back. 
That is all there is in this silver bill, — pure politics. 
Being a Republican and voting politically, I am for this 
bill." 

I admit that neither party is united upon this qnestion. 
But the difference between them is that at the critical 
moment the Republican party yields to financial heresy 
in its ranks, and the Democratic party conquers it. 

Let us look at the record. In 1884, notwithstanding 
a difference of opinion in the Democratic party, Mr. 
Cleveland announced his firm opposition to free coin- 
age and all unsound silver legislation, and for the four 
following years there was no talk or hope of such legis- 
lation. Contrast his course with the action of the Re- 
publican party in 1888, which, instead of supporting him 
in his course, by the solemn action of its National Con- 
vention denounced him and his party for their hostility 
to silver. Then the Republican party followed this by 
the admission of silver Territories with scarcely enough 
population to be entitled to a member of Congress, and 
did this to strengthen the Republican party in the Senate 
for years to come, with the inevitable result of financial 
heresy, no matter what the injury might be to the 
country. Then it followed this action by the passage of 
the Sherman Bill; and Mr. McKinley,its leader, was sent 



458 SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. 

through the country advocating silver, and denouncing 
Mr. Cleveland and his party for their opposition to it. 
An ominous silence followed in the Republican plat- 
forms in State and Nation while the dangers and evils 
of the Sherman Bill were hccoming more and more 
manifest. Contrast such action with the record of 
the Democratic party in 1802 in Congress and in its 
National Convention. There it met and fought and 
defeated the spirit of financial unsoundness Avithin its 
party, denounced the Sherman Bill, demanded its repeal, 
and nominated for President the man who stands to- 
day, and always has stood, as a pillar of strength for 
sound and honest money ; and Democratic Conventions 
since have sustained liijn in his course. Within a few 
weeks, 'in Nebraska, the Democratic party in convention, 
hy a vote of three to one, indorsed his policy. And now 
the country turns with confidence to the Democratic 
party to cure this distress by undoing Republican legis- 
lation. It knows the cause of its trouble, and the cure. 

From hoards of trade and business centres throughout 
the country there has come a unanimous demand for 
what ? To let the tariff alone ? No ; but, without a 
dissenting voice, to repeal the Sherman Bill. Patiently 
and hopefully, business Avatclies every move at Wash- 
ington, as if its very life depended upon the action of 
the Senate. No barometer ever more truly indicated 
change of weather than business indicates from day to 
day the ups and downs of the movement for repeal. It 
knows and says through its representatives that the one 
predominant cause of our trouble is the financial legis- 
lation of a Republican Congress, and the one remedy for 
the evil is its repeal by a Democratic Congress. 

But the Republican party, anxious to shirk this re- 
sponsibility, pretends that our troubles are due, not to 
existing laws, hut to laws which the Democrats mean to 



SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. 459 

pass ; that we are not reaping the whirlwind which the 
Republicans liavc sown, but are suffering because an 
overwhelming majority of the people have thrust them 
from power and condemned their financial and tariff 
policies. They tell the laborer out of work that his 
suffering is due to the Democratic victory. They for- 
get to tell him that no law has yet been changed, that 
he is still enjoying the blessings of McKinleyism, of 
high protection and Republican laws and policy. 

Let us examine briefly their claim. What is the 
legislation the Democrats intend to pass ? First, the 
repeal of the Sherman Bill. To this they are pledged ; 
for this their President has called Congress together 
in special session ; already the Democratic House has 
passed repeal by an overwhelming vote ; and a Demo- 
cratic Senate, in spite of all obstruction, is bound to 
follow, without compromise or concession. 

The Democratic party has no thought of avoiding the 
full responsibility which rests upon it now ; but if the 
country is impatient of delay, let it remember that it 
takes time to exhaust Stewart and Teller and Jones 
and Peifer and Allen and Du Bois and Wolcott, — 
not one of them a Democrat, and all permitted by 
foolish rules to talk to their heart's content. Let it 
be remembered, also, that it takes time to change the 
rules which a Republican Senate for a generation has 
established and upheld. But just as sure as the rising 
sun, the right of a majority to rule and of a legislative 
body to vote will be asserted, and, with or without rules, 
the demand of the country for legislation will be en- 
forced. It is no time now to talk of compromise, but, 
under a Democratic President, it is our duty to fight this 
battle to a finish, and in the repeal of the Sherman Bill 
to establish once and for all the right of a majority to 
rule. 



4G0 SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. 

Is this the impending legislation which causes trouble ? 
No ; but in the unanimous opinion at least of the people 
of this State it is the sole and necessary remedy. 

But the Republicans say it is fear of reduction of the 
tariff which is injuring business, and that the Demo- 
cratic party means to repeal the McKinley Bill and to 
reduce the tariff. It is true the Democratic party has, 
by the deliberate, repeated judgment of the country, been 
charged with the duty of reducing tariff taxation and 
repealing the McKinley Bill. It is true it means faith- 
fully to discharge this duty and to enforce the will of 
the country. No vote in Massachusetts or elsewhere 
can change its purpose or swerve it from this duty ; 
but the vote and support of Massachusetts can give 
her influence in such legislation, and make her as potent 
a factor in Democratic tariff reform as Pennsylvania or 
Ohio has been in Republican high protection. 

But I assert emphatically that the fear of tariff 
reduction has not caused present distress, and will be 
when accom])lished only a blessing to our people and 
their industries. 

Let us look a little into the past, and see how far 
the fear or promise of tariff reduction has been an in- 
jury to business or caused distress. There has scarcely 
been a year since the close of the war until the surrender 
of the Republican party to McKinleyism when there has 
not been promised and impending tariff reduction. Even 
the war tariff was passed under a distinct pledge that it 
should be reduced when the war was over. Presidents 
Grant and Arthur and their Secretaries of the Treasury 
frequently urged such reduction. The Tariff Commis- 
sion of 1882, made up wholly of protectionists, and 
almost wholly of Republicans, after thorough examina- 
tion recommended a reduction of from 20 to 25 per cent. 
In 1884 the Republican party generally, and notably in 



SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. 461 

this State in its Convention, and speaking through Mr. 
Long and Mr. Lodge, recommended such reduction, and 
largely on the line of the present Democratic policy. 
Then, in 1887, came the vigorous message of President 
Cleveland, followed by the Mills Bill, that proposed 
reduction, but not so large as had before been advocated 
by Republicans themselves. Through all these years 
there were promise and hope of tariff reduction through 
both the Republican and the Democratic parties ; and 
though these efforts failed, some of them unexpectedly, 
nowhere did the expectation of tariff' reduction cause 
panic or business distress. There came then three years 
more of agitation for tariff reduction ; then the em- 
phatic verdict of the country in 1890, with its con- 
demnation of tlie McKinley Bill, and its overwhelming 
demand for tariff reduction ; and in that verdict Massa- 
chusetts joined, and sent a majority of Democratic Con- 
gressmen to carry out her will. 

It was perfectly certain then that tariff reduction had 
got to come. True, Republican control could still thwart 
the will of the country ; but its unmistakable judgment 
had been rendered, and it was certain that it must soon 
prevail. The timid manufacturer who believed that this 
would be an injury to him might well have shortened 
sail ; tariff reduction on Democratic lines was then 
impending. Was there business depression ? The Re- 
publicans say that after the McKinley Bill had been 
emphatically repudiated there followed years of pros- 
perity ; but, whether prosperity or not, was our condi- 
tion due to the McKinley Bill, or to its repudiation by 
the country ? 

Then came the election of 1892, and the country again 
and more emphatically repeated its verdict, demanded 
tariff reduction, and, for the first time since tlie war, 
restored Democracy to power in all branches of the 



462 SrEECH AT HAVERHILL. 

government, to make its will law. It was certainly 
known then that McKinleyisra had got to go, and tliat 
tariff reform was to be a settled fact. Yet prosperity 
continued. Not for months afterwards did we have 
depression. 

Did Massachusetts fear tariff reduction ? Why, no 
longer ago than April of this year, in one of her most 
imijortant manufacturing districts, she reversed a large 
Republican majority, and sent a Democrat to Congress 
to aid in the good work of tariff reform. 

The McKinley law is still in force. If it brought 
good times, it has also brought hard times. Twice it has 
been repudiated by the country, yet for months and 
years after, prosperity continued. Not until our revenue 
fell off and gold was exported, our gold reserve impaired 
and silver purchases had enormously increased, — all 
acts directly chargeable to Republican legislation, — not 
until then was confidence destroyed. Then business 
became stagnant and mills idle. If ever a party was 
responsible for public evils, the Republican party is 
to-day for its legislation, which has led to this certain 
result. No wonder it is trying to shift the responsi- 
bility on to other shoulders, and to deceive the people by 
declaring that it is Democratic victory and tariff reform 
which cause distress. No honest, intelligent man be- 
lieves that to be the true cause, not even Republican 
leaders and protectionists. 

Listen for a minute to their evidence. Mr. Thomas 
Dolan, the president, I believe, of the Manufacturers' 
Club of Philadelphia, the most important protective 
organization in the country, says, — 

" I believe that the depression is almost wholly due to 
the silver policy. If the alarm was due to the victory of 
the Democrats, why was it not manifested last November? 



SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. 463 

The people knew then as well as they know now that it 
was Avithin the power of the new administration to repeal 
the tariff laws, yet no uneasiness was felt." 

And then, having in mind the repeal of Republican 
legislation, he adds : — 

"As soon as Congress enacts the proper laws, I look for 
a complete restoration of confidence, which will cause the 
tide of prosperity again to sweep over the land." 

Senator Sherman no longer ago than October 17 de- 
clared ill the Senate, — 

" If we would repeal the Silver Act to-morrow, after the 
long debate that has been had, and dispose of this question 
as we think best for the people of the United States while 
you are assuming your responsibility, we would gladden 
the hearts of millions of laboring men who are now being 
turned out of employment, we would relieve the business 
cares of thousands of men whose whole fortunes are em- 
barked in trade. We Avould relieve the farmer of his 
product for free transportation to foreign countries, now 
clogged for the want of money." 

And he adds : — 

" In ten days from this time the skies will brighten, 
business will resume its ordinary course, and ' the clouds 
that lower upon our house will be in the deep bosom of the 
ocean buried.' " 

These leading Re])ublicans and protectionists point out 
the true cause of our trouble ; and for that canse the 
Republican party is solely responsible, and no man in it 
more so than the Republican candidate for Governor in 
this State. 

Now let us go one step farther. I assert that the 
fear of tariff reform not only is not the cause of our 



464 SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. 

distress, but that the Democratic policy, when accom- 
plished, will be a help to our industries. Massachusetts 
said so in 1890. Even in the presidential year of 1892 
she gave the smallest majority for Republican congress- 
men that she has ever given in a presidential year ; and 
she certainly said so again in one district at least in 
April, 1893, in the election of Dr. Everett. 
' What is the Democratic policy ? It is to reduce tariff 
taxation so as to cheapen the necessaries of life and give 
free raw materials to our industries. This is the policy 
of the Democratic party as declared in its National 
Conventions and State Conventions over and over ao^ain, 
in bills which it has formulated, and in votes which it 
has given. 

Just as certain as that the McKinley Bill has got to 
go, it is also certain that in its place will come a Demo- 
cratic bill, with free wool, coal, iron oi'c, and other raw 
materials for our industries, and still raising the revenue 
necessary for public purposes. * 

Is such a policy, or the fear of such a policy, an injury 
to our industries, or the cause of our depression and 
idleness ? I say no, emphatically no. 

Every large iron and steel industry, almost without 
exception, in New England declared over its signature 
that free raw materials not only would bring prosperity 
to that industry, but are necessary for its very life. 
Republican tariff duties on its raw material, they said 
in exact terms, were "wiping out," "strangling" this 
industry, and that the " abolition of those duties will not 
only keep it alive, but will insure it a tremendous vital- 
ity and large increase." 

So the woollen industry, speaking through such great 
manufacturers as Stevens, Lyman, Blaikie, and seven 
hundred other manufacturers and dealers, declared that 
free wool would be a great benefit to it. Every civilized 



SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. 465 

nation except ours has said the same thing, and given to 
its woollen industry the great boon of free wool. The 
whole industry here was in favor of this policy in 1866, 
and petitioned for free wool, and twenty-five per cent only 
of protection on its finished product. Then came the 
" trade " in 1867 between the woollen manufacturer and 
the wool-grower, by which they, leaving the people wholly 
out of account, agreed that the grower should have a 
high tariff tax on wool, and because of this burden to 
the manufacturer that he too was to have a higher tariff 
tax on woollen goods. 

It was one of those " trades " of which we have seen; 
so many since, — sometimes one industry with another, 
sometimes the protectionist with the silver-mine owner, 
sometimes the Republican party with all protected in- 
terests ; all seeking the interest of the producer only, 
neglecting that of the whole people as consumers, and 
using their law to tax them, not for public purposes, but 
for private benefits. 

What do these tariff taxes on wool, high, and made 
still higher by the McKinley Bill, mean to you and to^ 
me ? I will tell you what they are intended to mean : A 
higher price for wool ; a higher cost of woollen goods ; a 
burden on all of us as consumers; a burden also on the 
manufacturer. Because of it he asked and got a further 
tariff tax on his finished goods, called " compensatory," 
because to make up for the burden to him of taxing 
wool. 

That is what the McKinlov Bill meant, that is what 
Mr. McKinley himself meant when, in reporting it, he 
declared that he did not believe " that our people, already 
suffering from low prices, can or will be satisfied with 
legislation which will result in lower prices." 

That is what Mr. Greenhalge meant when in his speech 
here, October 16, he declared that these articles taxed 

30 



4:66 SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. 

were luxuries, — having in mind, I suppose, the fact that j 

they were made expensive, and so hixuries, under Repub- fl 

lican high protection. Let me quote his words : — ■ 

" I will make and advance this princij)le in economic 
laws as adapted to our nation of producers : that any man 
who wants to buy as against a native product the product 
of another nation is in effect trying to buy a luxury, and, 
therefore, that luxury should be treated as a proper subject 
of taxation, in order to equalize the taxation of our peoj)le 
here." 

You notice he says he "makes" that principle. He 
seems to have a remarkable faculty for making off-hand 
new tariff principles which the wisdom and discussion 
of one hundred years have quite overlooked. 

" Luxuries," he calls them. Are coal and wool, are 
food and clothing, luxuries ? Are they made so because 
you can buy them cheaper in another market ? Is coal 
made a luxury to you because you can get it seventy- 
five cents a ton less if the Republican tariff tax is 
lifted ? 

Against his novel principle of economics T will advance 
this plain principle of common-sense : That where a tariff 
tax is laid upon a necessary of life which is the raw 
material of a great industry, and such tax is not needed 
for revenue, then the tax is unjust, unnecessary, and 
injurious, because a burden on the people and a burden 
on their industries. Such are these taxes on coal and 
wool and crude iron and the raw materials of our 
industries. 

Which principle, his or this, do you believe is best for 
the working-man ? 

Well, let us see what the effect would be of removing 
these taxes, as the Democratic party proposes to do. 

They were laid, as Mr. McKinley confessed and pro- 



SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. . 467 

tection declares, for the purpose of making these mate- 
rials higher in price. Remove the taxes, and you make 
these materials cheaper. If wool is cheaper, clothing is 
cheaper ; if clothing is cheaper, there is a greater de- 
mand for it. You and I might buy two suits, perhaps, 
where now we buy one. If there is a greater demand, 
then more clothes must be made. Then comes more 
work, a greater demand for labor. Then come the two 
jobs looking for the one man, instead of the two men 
for the one job, and then necessarily come higher 
wages. 

Take as another illustration the cotton industry. Sup- 
pose the government should put an internal tax on 
cotton as it does a tariff tax on wool, or that a short 
crop or other cause should raise its price : what would 
be the effect on this industry ? Well, cotton goods 
would be higher, people would then buy less, and you 
would manufacture less. Then mills would become idle, 
wages would be reduced, and men would be out of work. 
You remember when Mr. McKinley planned to put back 
the tariff tax on hides, the raw material of the leather 
and boot and shoe industries, there came a vigorous pro- 
test from Massachusetts and throughout the country. 
Did not the manufacturers say it would be a serious 
injury to that industry ? Mr. McKinley said there was 
just as much reason for taxing hides as for taxing wool. 
He was right ; but he did not dare to put back that 
tax. The Democratic party says there is just as much 
reason for free wool as free hides, and it means to remove 
that tax. 

Working-men, — I address you especially now, — if 
your employer tells you that tariff reduction is going to 
hurt your industry, ask him how free wool is going to 
hurt it ? Ask him if free silk has been an injury to the 
silk industry, or free hides to the boot and shoe industry. 



4G8 SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. 

or free rags to the paper industry. If so, whj- did the 
Rejniblican party remove the duties on those raw mate- 
rials ? If he says free wool means free woollen goods, 
ask him how he knows it. Tell him the Democratic 
party has twice put its tariff policy into bills which it 
has tried to make law ; that those bills gave free wool 
and a tariff on woollen goods higher than the whole 
labor cost of the goods, and much higher than the 
twenty-live per cent which in 1866 the woollen manu- 
facturers said was all that was necessary ; and then 
tell him that your representative, Mr. Stevens, who is 
more largely interested in the woollen industry than any 
other man in the country, says there can be a reduction 
of these taxes with benefit to the people and the in- 
dustry, and add that he is an influential member of the 
committee which is to fix these tariff schedules. 

If your employer tells you that high tariff makes high 
wages, ask him how he proves it. Remind him that in 
free-trade England wages are higher than in the pro- 
tected countries of Europe ; that average wages here are 
lower in protected industries than in the unprotected ; 
that they increased more under a low tariff than they 
have under a high tariff ; and that the Democratic policy 
of free raw materials means greater demand for goods, 
and so for labor. Then say to him quietly — very 
quietly, for he is sensitive on this point — that we have 
now a high tariff in the ^IcKinley Bill, the highest tariff 
the country has ever known ; that under it wages have 
been cut down, mills are idle, and men out of work. 

If he says you get higher wages than men do in Eng- 
land, tell him yes, because you earn them, and do more 
work. Measured in dollars, they are higher ; measured 
by your work, they are not. Not one dollar is paid you 
which you have not fully earned in comparison with 
labor anvwhere. Remind him that the leaders of his 



SPEECH AT HAVERHILL. 469 

party, Evarts and Blaine, both so declared when they 
were Republican Secretaries of State. 

If your Republican employer then turns and threatens 
you, and tries to coerce your vote, keep your peace, — 
your bread may be lost by a hasty word, — but go to 
the polls and vote as your conscience and convictions 
dictate ; for there is no meaner or more unjust man than 
the one who, having the power to take the bread from 
the mouth of another, tries through this power to coerce 
his conscience and control his vote. In the secrecy of 
the polling-bootii you can resent intimidation, you can 
remember that the Democratic party is and always has 
been your friend and champion. 

Working-men, the Democratic party, of which you are 
the backbone, and which has always fought for your 
interests, has no policy on the tariff which will not 
bring to you cheaper necessaries of life, greater comfort 
and happiness to your homes, and increased prosperity 
to your industries. If you are suffering to-day, remem- 
ber you are still under the laws and policy of the Repub- 
lican party, still reaping what they have sown, and that 
they are to blame for present evils. The country, dis- 
gusted and indignant at Republican misrule, placed 
Democracy in power to undo Republican work and to 
remedy its mischief. Tiie Democratic party is now be- 
ginning this duty. As it proceeds with its good work, I 
believe there will come to our country, North and South, 
East and West, greater prosperity and happiness. 



THE END. 







014 076 343 3 






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